Two children's swing parks in the district - Fairlie Pier and Craufurd Avenue in West Kilbride - are both set for the axe due to severe council cuts over the next few years.
The news was met by dismay from both communities when the plans were revealed at a council meeting this week.
Kay Hall of West Kilbride Community Council stated that the swing park at Craufurd Avenue in very well used, while Rita Holmes of Fairlie Community Council also voiced strong reservations as it was the only swing park on the west side of the busy main road.
However, North Ayrshire Council have to make £50,000 savings to this particular department, and say the swing parks have been selected because of the cost involved in upgrading, and not necessarily because of how busy they were.
The possibility of community ownership of the playparks was also raised as a possibility at the meeting, which took place at Clark Memorial Church Hall in Largs.
The council's executive director on Place, Craig Hatton, explained that the axing meant that the main swing parks in each village would be better resourced as a result, and would be more focal points for children playing.
However, Kay Hall stated that children's play areas were important safe havens for children in their neighbourhoods, and Rita Holmes concurred, pointing out that in neither Fairlie or West Kilbride did you want to see young children having long distances and busy roads to cross to access swing parks.
Louise McDaid added: "There would be a lot of upset in West Kilbride if the Craufurd Avenue swing park was to close. There is an active tenants group in the area, and it might be good if North Ayrshire Council could talk to them about trying to keep the swing park open."
NAC have stated that swing parks at Castlepark, Fairlie, and Surrey Glen Largs, will be enhanced.
There has been significant investment in playpark equipment in recent years which has resulted in high quality playpark provision at a number of locations throughout, NAC reported to the meeting.
However, there is a small number of play parks which are either rarely used, have low value equipment, or are subject to vandalism and/or attract anti-social behaviour. A number of facilities also suffer from location - in some cases by being relatively closely located to larger well used play parks.
Efficiency savings of £50,000 for the review of play park provision, which indicated an estimated reduction of the number of parks from 106 to 60, were approved and due to take effect from 1 April 2017. 
Labour councillor Alex Gallagher, of the ruling administration at North Ayrshire, has offered an olive branch, and said: "The decision to close swing parks was taken before we took over the administration, and the council is under tremendous financial pressure with a forecasted £53m cut in revenue budget in next three years as a worst case scenario - it is regrettable having to consider the closure of playparks but that is the hard decision that is going to have to be made if our financial position doesn't improve.
"If there is a community solution to these situations in Fairlie and West Kilbride, then that would be the best possible outcome."