More than half of the registered sex offenders in South Ayrshire are currently living in Ayr.
New police figures show 112 people on the register live in the council region, with the KA8 postcode topping the list.
The data was released by Police Scotland following a Freedom of Information request for a breakdown of all the registered sex offenders (RSOs) in the area.
Between Ayr’s two postcode areas, 61 sex offenders currently reside.
The highest number of those are in the KA8 area, with 39 registered people.
The area includes the neighbourhoods of Wallacetown, Craigie, Dalmilling, Whitletts, Heathfield and Newton on Ayr.
This is followed by Ayr’s other postcode area KA7, where 22 RSOs live. Those neighbourhoods include Holmston, Belmont, Seafield, Alloway, Doonfoot and Dunure.
The KA19 postcode – which takes in Maybole, Minishant, Crosshill and Straiton – has the highest number of sex offenders per population.
Despite homing the smallest number of residents in the region – 7,700 – 12 of those are sex offenders.
In Mossblown, Coylton, Drongan and Patna’s KA6 postcode, 15 sex offenders currently reside.
Nine RSOs live in Troon, eight live in Prestwick and Monkton and seven live in Girvan’s KA26
postcode.
The Freedom of Information request states that while police can “never eliminate risk entirely” they want to “reassure communities that all reasonable steps are being taken to protect them.”
It continues: “We put in place measures to minimise the likelihood of further sexual reoffending by RSOs and would seek to reassure people that sexual reoffending rates remain extremely low.
“RSOs are robustly managed by the police and our partners through the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), and subject to comprehensive risk assessment and risk management in the community.
“Police Scotland has units of dedicated officers specially trained for this
task.”
