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Ayrshire councils are gearing up to win UK Government cash for major projects worth up to £20 million each.

Improvements to the A77 and A75 may be one of the grant bids put forward by South and East Ayrshire councils as part of funding applications.

The local authorities are considering submitting that bid to the UK Government Levelling Up Fund to win cash to upgrade the major arterial routes.

It may be submitted jointly with Dumfries and Galloway Council.

South Ayrshire is also in discussion with North Ayrshire Council to create a bid for ‘active travel’ and ‘commercial space development’ in the central Ayrshire constituency.

In addition, officials are gearing up to apply for town centre regeneration cash in the Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock constituency as part of a third potential bid.

Bids must be backed by MPs. The aim is to submit them to the next round of funding expected to open in Autumn 2021.

A total of £432 million has been earmarked for Scotland.

Councils can receive £125, 000 to support development of bids according to a paper submitted to the most recent South Ayrshire Leadership Panel.

The paper said: “A capital bid can be for an individual project or a package of up to three projects, up to £20 million in value per bid, or in exceptional cases up to £50 million per bid for larger transport projects. Both individual and package bids can contain proposals within a single, or across multiple themes, so long as they for part of a coherent, consistent proposal.”

Organisations in the community were able to submit bids for another grant source – the £220 million UK Community Renewal Fund.

The applications were handled by the council - before being submitted to the UK Government.