A PILOT scheme costing £38,000 to encourage local young people to save has failed to add up.

Inversavers was a two-year project to set up a pupil-run credit union bank in secondary schools.

It also aimed to establish a credit union account for all first year pupils, including a deposit of £10 per pupil.

But a new report by council officials reveals that the scheme had limited success.

It says four secondary schools are engaged in the process to establish a credit union.

Two primary schools are also working with staff from the Tail O’ the Bank credit union to establish a whole school union.

A briefing prepared for councillors said: “The information suggests that engaging with young people in primary seven or in S1 to open an account has had a limited degree of success.

“Only 250 accounts were opened in year one and 171 in year two, against the expected outcome of 800 accounts in each year.

“At this moment in time only a small amount of pupils are saving using the Inversavers Project to regularly save money.

“The information gathered suggests that the £10 deposited into the credit union account has not been particularly successful.”

The council will now consider whether to continue with the initiative, at a cost of £9,000 per year, or abandon it.