A PLAN to get Linwood residents active is set to take off, thanks to funding from nearby Glasgow Airport's FlightPath Fund.

Paths between the ON-X Leisure Centre and Linwood Community Woodland are being improved and new links set up to offers safe, accessible, and most importantly, traffic-free routes for local residents.

The £150,000 work will start in spring and improve outdoor life for 9000 people who live locally as well as the 650,000 annual visitors to the sports centre. A sum of £3000 has been donated by the airport.

"This is a fantastic initiative. The FlightPath Fund is eager to support projects which are beneficial in terms of education, employment and the environment, and this project meets all three of those. We're looking forward to seeing how the project develops over the coming months," said Renfrewshire Councillor Sam Mullin, a member of the FlightPath Fund committee.

The Linwood Community Woodland Link project is a partnership with Linwood Active, Renfrewshire Council, SportScotland, Renfrewshire Leisure, Houston, Crosslee, Linwood, Riverside and Erskine Local Area Committee and Renfrewshire Community Health Partnership. Forestry Commission Scotland also supports the project.

"We are delighted, Linwood Active use these paths as part of the annual 5k and have cleaned up the area by litter clearing regularly since 2006," said Lesley Compston, secretary of Linwood Active.

"We are looking forward to seeing the results of the hard work and commitment that our partners have had on this project. Having safe places for our community to access and enjoy is our ethos and remains our focus for the community of Linwood."