ANGRY villagers have been told the long-awaited upgrade to their playpark should get under way soon.

Fife Council allocated £126,000 to Wellwood more than four YEARS ago to help pay for the work – but it's never started.

Councillor Helen Law raised the issue at the community and housing services sub-committee last week and said locals were "very unhappy" about the delay.

She said: "With Wellwood playpark, we're really struggling to get that moving.

"It's designed, there are multiple funders in place, including the council which made a significant investment in it, but we need to get cracking.

"There are a number of reasons for the delays but the community are now feeling very frustrated that turf hasn't been broken and we've not made the progress they had hoped.

"I need assurances it will be a top priority moving forward."

Paul Vaughan, head of communities and neighbourhoods service, replied: "I will look into the issue at Wellwood as I know that's been ongoing for some time in terms of getting that work commenced."

After the meeting, Cllr Law, the convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee, told the Press: "The village and the community council have done so much work on this project so there's a great deal of unhappiness that they've had to wait so long.

"There was £126,000 allocated in 2017 as it needed a significant upgrade. I think with the money from the Common Good Fund and the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, there's about £150,000 in the pot.

"There was a list of playparks getting money and Wellwood asked if they could go to the end as, at that time, I&H Brown's preparations for their housing development were under way and Wellwood was totally dug up.

"It was supposed to take a number of months but overran significantly and by the time we were ready to go, COVID hit.

"So there have been significant delays, it's been very unfortunate, and the community are very unhappy about it."

The playpark is on the green space between Leadside Crescent and Burt Street.

She continued: "There's play equipment there, which will be upgraded, and they'll be putting lights on the path too as there isn't any lighting there at the moment.

"It's been an unacceptable level of delays but I'm really hopeful it'll go ahead very soon."