SCHOOLS could open during holidays to provide free leisure activities for children under a radical plan to be unveiled at Holyrood.

Free meals would be served to children taking part in sport, art and recreational clubs if the proposal from Tory MSP and former Olympic athlete Brian Whittle is included in the budget..

The policy could be paid for with Scotland's share of the UK-wide sugar tax proceeds. The tax, which is designed to tackle obesity, will add between 6p and 8p to cans of soft drinks from April next year.

Finance secretary Derek Mackay will be asked to adopt the plan when he unveils the budget on December 14.

Free activities would be on offer at schools during the summer, Easter and Christmas holidays, as well as over half-term.

The clubs would be run by sports coaches, many of whom would be retired. No teachers would be forced to work during the holiday periods to deliver the policy.

The £47 million Scotland is expected to get from the UK-wide levy would be used to pay for the scheme.

Whittle said the policy was needed because of the expense of sports centre activities. He claimed "sport has become the bastion of the middle classes", with many children missing out because of the expense.

The call came after Holyrood’s health committee said there had been no increase in the number of Scots taking part in sport in the last decade. Whittle said a radical plan was needed to reverse that trend.

He said: "The greatest health inequalities happen during school holidays where those that have (resources) have the ability to access activities and those that haven't struggle.

"Food bank use spikes during school holidays because of the need to pay for childcare for parents that are working. That obviously puts a strain on household budgets, so let's take that out of the equation."

Whittle said free meals should be served to those attending the clubs.

He said: "We say come along and we'll provide a bowl of soup or stew.

"It's not difficult. Let's take it a stage further and look at providing things that are not difficult to provide."

Whittle added: "It seems to me that the way to pay for that in the first instance is to look at using revenues raised by the sugar tax.

"My opinion is the reason we have the sugar tax is to tackle health problems like obesity, so why don't we use it to have a double whammy. Take that money and use it."

When asked whether the scheme should be free for all school age children, Whittle said: "I think that's something we'd definitely have to look at. What we have to do is get universal accessibility," he added.

The former European Championship gold medalist said: "The problem is of course is that in my day we had much more extra-curricular activity and the cost of access was much less than it is now.

"We used to put the jumpers down as goalposts, whereas now you've got to hire a pitch because everywhere has got no ball game signs.

"Sport has become the bastion of the middle classes."

Whittle added that the clubs would offer art, drama and music opportunities, as well as sport.

However, a Scottish Government spokesman said Westminster ministers had yet to clarify how much Scotland will get from the sugar tax.

The Scottish Government spokesman said: “The UK Government must provide certainty on what the tax will raise and should pass on Scotland’s share of the sugar tax in full to the Scottish Government rather than offset it with other UK cuts."

A spokesman from the Scottish Government's sports agency, Sportscotland added: “Sportscotland is always keen to hear how we can work together to strengthen the sporting system and would welcome the opportunity to discuss ways to encourage increased use of the school estate to support the drive towards increased participation in sport and physical activity.”