Published: Thursday, 27th November, 2008 11:15
West Fife councillors under fire over opencast no show
By Matt Meade
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COUNCILLORS have been criticised for failing to attend a site visit to help decide on the controversial opencast mine proposals based beside two tiny West Fife villages.
Only Bobby Clelland and Alice McGarry out of a possible 11 councillors turned up for the inspection on Friday morning.
Both admitted to being “disappointed” at the poor attendance, which has angered community councils staunchly opposed to the development beside Upper Kinneddar and Cowstrandburn, between Saline and Oakley.
The pair spent over two hours in and around the area where UK Coal Mining Ltd want to extract 750,000 tonnes of coal on a 32 hectare site north of Blair Farm.
Marion McGaughay, chair of Blairhall Community Council, said, “The councillors have a big responsibility so it’s ridiculous.
“They should have turned out in bigger numbers to support local people.
“The big concern for us is the amount of lorries that will be passing through the village. The amount of traffic could have a very big impact on Blairhall.”
John Crane, vice-chair of Saline and Steelend community council, said they too were “extremely disappointed”.
Following a meeting of the community council on Tuesday night, he added, “We would hope that at the next development committee meeting the councillors will take into account all the objections that have been submitted by the residents of Cowstrandburn, Kinnedder Park and our council.
“Being unaware of the circumstances that prohibited the other councillors from attending we were loath to criticise.”
Members of the South West Fife area committee had decided at their last meeting to make a site visit and ask UK Coal about an alternative route for their coal trucks.
The two tiny communities affected have been backed by the community councils of Blairhall, Steelend and Saline.
Committee member Councillor Bob Eadie admitted the poor turn-out was “very regrettable” but said timetable clashes often prevented councillors from attending.
He said, “Site visits have always been a controversial thing because attendance has always been poor.
"It’s one of those things that everyone’s in favour of at the time, but when a date is decided it’s not going to suit everyone.
“A lot of the public have the perception that we are sitting around drinking tea and that’s certainly not the case.”
He added, “I will listen carefully to Bobby Clelland on the matter as he himself is a former miner and someone who is born and bred in the area.”
Of the nine who missed the visit, two were on holiday, two cited work commitments and three were attending to other council duties. The Press was unable to contact the other two.
Councillor Clelland, whose West Fife and Coastal Villages ward covers the site, said, “I’m familiar with the area but still felt it was necessary given the amount of concern from locals to turn up, meet officials and find out more.”
The main objections to the plans include the impact it will have on nearby Bandrum Nursing Home, which has 200 residents and staff and the health hazards posed by dust and continuous noise.
They are also concerns over the route of heavy vehicles which could affect Blairhall, Saline, Steelend and Oakley.
Councillor Alice McGarry, who is chair of the South West Fife area committee, said, “Given that a lot of councillors wanted more information, it’s quite surprising that only two turned up.”
She said site visits were only necessary if there were issues councillors thought were not clear from the papers and maps shown to them.
“They should be done on a rare occasion and this one was certainly justified,” she said.
“Nobody demurred – everyone seemed to want a site visit. I know some had valid reasons for not turning up, but I don’t know about the rest of them.
“It is rather disappointing. I assume that those who were able to turn up but didn’t must feel they already have enough information on which to base their decision.”
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