A PILOT scheme which will see rural residents competing in sports such as boccia and new age kurling has been launched to tackle the rising number or people facing isolation.

Hambleton District Council's Primetime initiative aims to stimulate social activity groups run by community teams in sparsely populated areas by providing advice and funds.

Lisa Wilson, the council's lifestyles manager, said while many residents like living on their own, there was a rising number of people facing isolation and the district's elderly population was expected to rise by 30 per cent by 2030.

A survey of 500 people by North Yorkshire Older People's Partnership board found 56 per cent had lived alone for more than 15 years and 39 per cent experienced loneliness, particularly in the evenings and at weekends.

The study also revealed that the last person 45 per cent of those surveyed had seen was a professional.

Ms Wilson said it was hoped the North Yorkshire County Council-funded scheme, which has been launched in Hutton Rudby and Husthwaite, would attract a range of residents, but in particular elderly men.

The council's previous schemes to tackle isolation, which have also aimed to provide physical health benefits, have mainly attracted women, and as a result, sessions have focused on activities such as dancing.

She said: "We have picked activities that are not gender specific and ones that also have a competitive edge to them, so that we attract men as well as women.

"Men are more reluctant to admit they are lonely and if all their social activity was at work or at the pub, when they lose that they don't have anything."

She added early indications showed the pilot scheme was attracting men.

If the schemes are successful it is hoped to launch the project in three more communities, which are yet to be decided, in the new year.

The district council is examining a range of other schemes which will provide health benefits, such as the FA's walking football project and the Sporting Memories Network, created by Topcliffe-based former psychiatric nurse Tony Jameson-Allen.

The Primetime groups meet at Church House, Hutton Rudby on Tuesdays until December 9, from 1pm or 2pm and at Husthwaite Village Hall on Fridays until December 12, from 10am or 11am.