He said: “One of our key objectives in the administration is to reduce poverty. The week was aimed at highlighting what was going on.

“It may be Poverty Week, but councilors are concerned about poverty every day.

“One of the cornerstones of what we do in the administration is poverty reduction. It’s the cost of living because people don’t have a good quality of life.

“We immediately told the office that we needed things.

“That’s why we’ve topped up the bridging payment by £100 and put the money towards supporting people in food pantries.

“One of the things that comes out of Anti-Poverty Week is that you can’t just focus on just lifting people out of the river. We must stop them going down the river, Tackle poverty at the source.

“It requires a long-term approach.

“Some councilors are outraged by this, but otherwise you will be fighting against the wind. With Labour, it’s all about the short term, not the long term.’

The events, according to him, gave a lot of reason for reflection.

Cllr Macaulay added: “One of the things we talked about at the event at Redburn Community Center is ‘There’s no wrong door’ – if you go to the library to get a form relating to your accommodation, you get it there instead of to go to several other places.

“I was at an all-Scotland event the other day on tackling child poverty in Scotland and they endorsed North Ayrshire’s approach, saying: ‘You need crisis intervention, but if that’s all you’re going to do, you’re never going to reduce [poverty] long term’.

“We’ve increased the Living Wage in North Ayrshire and we’ve had to cut £0.17m in people’s spending from the Energy Fund – part of that was down to reducing electricity bills at the source.”