ALMOST £35,000 in funding has been awarded to the £1.5 million Carnegie's Way project.

The pathway will see an easier and safer route for pedestrians and cyclists to travel from Dunfermline to Crossford.

Crossford Community Council were invited to submit a formal application for funding in August and have now learned their application has been successful.

Alastair Hibbert, a spokesperson for the community council, told the Press: "We've now got clearance from Places for Everyone for the first stage of the project, which is great. The first stage funding is to build a business plan and outline the concept for Places For Everyone so we can then go ahead to stages three and four, the nitty-gritty part!

"It's still very much at the business case stage but it's officially there, which is a big step forward from where we were before."

The Places for Everyone scheme by Sustrans have agreed a £34,636 grant for the project. There's still a long way to go before reaching the estimated cost of £1.5 million but Alastair added: "It's been a lot of hard work to get to this stage, a lot of hard work and bureaucracy to get through and it's just been hard to get it moving with Fife Council, there was always a problem or a delay, or no money, or it was too difficult or the landowner wasn't happy!

"We'll need to engage with the landowner and the tenant farmer now and try to get them involved and persuade them that this is a good project for them as well.

"This is great news but this is by no means the beginning of a definite trail, we're just trying to move on to the next stage and if we get to the next stage then we'll have a project that's probably going to be developed."

Alastair explained that this project had been talked about for decades but now, with funding approved, they can start to make some progress. Their next steps is to get in touch with the tenant farmer and the landowner of the property the path would cut through and convince them of the benefits this would bring, not only to the area but to them as well.

Fife Council service manager Susan Keenlyside said that the council had been working with the community in Crossford over the past year to take the funding application forward.

She commented: "We're delighted that the funding has now been awarded by Sustrans which will let the design work start. As the project moves forward, we hope more stakeholders will come forward and get involved."