THE open week for The School Uniform Bank in Clackmannanshire began on Monday, July 24.

The Gate in Alloa, working in partnership with local politicians and Tesco, have brought back the successful initiative for a third time.

Running until the end of the week, the community project is helping families in the county to get prepared for the new academic year.

People can drop in between 2-4pm over the next three days – Wednesday, July 26 until Friday, July 28 – and the project had a busy start to the week.

Evelyn Paterson, chair of The Gate, said: "It went extremely well and we supported in the first afternoon approximately 80 children; already we have had almost 100 children via referral.

"We were overwhelmed with the amount of donations that we had but we can't accept any more now.

"Everybody was extremely grateful and also a few of them gave us small donations, gave us what they could afford to donate which all goes back to The Gate."

The aim of the project is to ensure that every child in the county attends school appropriately dressed and with dignity and confidence.

Clothes and equipment are available as an open-to-all uniform bank and exchange at The Gate Centre at 2 Ludgate in Alloa.

The bank supported over 200 children last year with new and second-hand uniforms ahead of the school term starting.