DANCERS are delighted after their year-long search for a new home finally came to an end.

Youngsters taking part in the monthly Renfrewshire Festivals Highland Dancing Competition have been offered the sports hall at St Stephen's High School at Port Glasgow Community Campus.

Organiser Jacqueline Deeney had been looking to find a new venue for monthly classes after being forced out of Inverclyde when a soft play facility was installed at their old Boglestone Community Centre base.

Inverclyde Leisure offered the group Port Glasgow Town Hall at a reduced rate only to inform them they would have to sign up to a catering deal because they wanted to make hot drinks and run a tuck shop.

Jacqueline says she is delighted that a solution has finally be found.

Jacqueline, who runs her own Deeney School of Dance academy, said: "Our last competition in Boglestone was last February and since then we have had to move about in various venues outside Inverclyde.

"It is great to finally bring it back home.

"We got over 100 dancers signed up for our first competition straight away, which was brilliant."

"I’m delighted that we have managed to find a new venue back in Inverclyde and I’m excited to get things going again at our new venue."

The Tele recently highlighted the group's homeless plight and it set the ball rolling.

Jacqueline said: "After the article in the Telegraph Inverclyde Leisure got in touch with me to try find a solution.

"Unfortunately we could not overcome the issue with the tuck shop in Port Glasgow Town Hall however we started to discuss different venues and came up with St Stephen's High.

"I went to see the gym hall at the school and it’s perfect for us and the kids.

"I’m grateful to the Telegraph and Inverclyde Leisure for making this happen."

Parents are also relieved as some were finding it difficult to get to the competitions, which were being held in the likes of Inchinnan, Bishopton, Erskine and Paisley.

Greenock mum Lynette Murray, whose six-year-old daughter Poppy takes part, said: "It's brilliant to be so much closer to home. I

"It means all the family can come to watch Poppy."

Linda Sharpe, whose daughter Olivia, 13, takes part, says the new agreement is 'fantastic news'.

She added: "We've been campaigning for months to get somewhere closer to home.

"It's an ideal size and has changing facilities and parking facilities and I'm only walking distance away."

Kirsty Brash, mum to dancing duo Nuala and Sadie McLaughlin, aged seven and four, said: "We live in Kilmacolm, so it's very handy for us."