A FORMER Longannet worker has welcomed "positive" dialogue between residents of the coastal villages and key figures from the station's taskforce.

Four months on from the closure of the power plant in Kincardine, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) held a conference to launch its Longannet Area Initiative, to ascertain the impact closure has had and will continue to have on West Fife communities.

Rab McKenzie worked in Valleyfield Colliery for 27 years before becoming a planner at Longannet, where he stayed for 11 years until being made redundant in 2013.

He attended the meeting, along with members of the public from the affected communities, representatives from Fife Council, the Scottish Government and Scottish Power, and heard that more than 1,000 people have been affected by the closure.

They were able to raise and discuss issues at workshop sessions and Rab said: "It's not really the immediate impact of redundancy that hits you.

"When I was made redundant, it was from a well-paid job with a pension, and so I had money in my pocket and a steady income I could rely on.

"I didn't need or receive benefits but they still wanted me to sign on at the dole, fill in loads of forms and complete numerous applications for low-paid jobs that I never heard anything back from. When you've worked hard all your life and paid your way, having to sign-on soon becomes very demoralising.

"And then there's the community around you; the knock-on effect on the local shops and the local people who work in them and rely on the money you spend in them. Shopkeepers here for might feel the pinch – I know guys who worked at the power station who have moved to Dunfermline for jobs.

"It's easy to say that the younger generation will have jobs and money to keep the local shops and businesses going, but where are the local jobs for the younger generation that pay those kind of wages or those kind of pensions? There used to be loads of jobs in this area; sadly, that's not the case now."

The CRT launched its Longannet initiative to use their community empowerment and budgeting experience which has helped seven communities hit by the fallout set up their own action plans.

Delegates at the meeting were also told by Scottish Power that a decommissioning team of 47 will remain in place at Longannet until the end of the year to remove oils and chemicals from the site; tenders will be sought for the station's demolition, which will follow similar lines to that of Cockenzie Power Station in East Lothian; and that it has still to be decided what the site will be used for following Longannet's demolition and clearance.

Rab added: "It was an excellent meeting and there were a lot of good things that came out of it.

"It's good that CRT are helping and you have to hope that it will it will make a difference, but there will be a knock-on effect even 6-7 months or a year down the line."

Gary Porter, appointed by the CRT to work as team leader on the Longannet project, said: "I was really impressed by the enthusiasm the conference generated, and the positive points that came through in the discussion groups.

"There was a really strong feeling that the delegates wanted to ensure there is some sort of legacy of the power station, and the massive impact it has had on the area."

The CRT will put together an action plan based on the discussions and hope to appoint a local steering group to it forward over the next six to eight weeks.

Fife Council leader David Ross, co-chair of the Longannet Taskforce, said: "I welcomed the opportunity to address the seminar.

"Local communities are central to the process of regenerating the local area in the wake of the Longannet closure and it was good to sit around the table with local people and community representatives and hear their views."

The CRT now plan to pull together an action plan based on the report of the group discussions, and hope to begin appointing a steering group to take the plan forward over the next 6-8 weeks.

Gary Ellis, chief executive of the CRT, said: "I was really proud of the work our head of operations in Scotland, Pauline Douglas, and her team put into organising this event.

"It builds on all the work they have done helping local communities pull together action plans, and I look forward to seeing how they use that momentum to make sure local people play a key role in the work of the taskforce."