Councillors allocate £852,633 to good causes in West Fife

The huge investment was approved by councillors on the South and West Fife area committee, who said the impact of the decision will be felt throughout local communities for years.

It includes £100,000 each for EATS Rosyth, Cairneyhill Parish Church's community cafe and Kingdom Off-Road Motorcycle Club, while there are significant sums for everything from baking bread and growing flowers to a new minibus and off-street parking.  

There's also £40,000 to establish Rosyth Men's Shed and secure their own premises, £50,000 for a new pump track in Dalgety Bay and £19,100 for Inverkeithing Scout Hall for solar roof panels. 

EATS Rosyth, which has received £100,000 from Fife Council, opened its community hub in the summer. (Image: David Wardle)

Committee convener, Councillor David Barratt, said: "Members of the committee are pleased to support these projects that are now set to make a real difference for the people they serve.

"And I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the many hard-working groups for their dedication in taking their ideas, often coming from community conversations, through to workable proposals that can now become a reality.

"They already do incredible work in their communities and we look forward to seeing the many positive impacts this latest range of projects will have."

In 2022, the council allocated a £10 million pot for use across the Kingdom to help with the cost of living crisis and Covid recovery. 

Each of the seven area committees was given an allocation and South and West Fife received £1.23m, to be spent over two years.

They allocated £355,000 to projects in January which left £875,000 to hand out.

Councillors decided that the remaining money would be distributed through a grant style application scheme open to community organisations and local community planning partners. 

Projects had to meet strict criteria and relate to at least one of the key themes – tackling poverty, economic recovery, climate action, and community wealth building. 

A total of 44 applications were received requesting over £1.723m of funding.

 “The Rosyth Men’s Shed have demonstrated time and time again their commitment to the community through projects they’ve done to help others.

"It’s good to give something back and help deliver what will be an excellent facility for them,” Cllr Brian Goodall said.  

Cllr Graeme Downie said the process of selection was “sometimes painful” – particularly because there were so many good applications from across the area.

“It’s not a sum of money we get to spend too often but I’m delighted that it’s been able to be provided by the Labour administration for fantastic projects across South West Fife,” he added. 

The project to build a new pump track in Dalgety Bay has received £50,000 from Fife Council. (Image: Newsquest)

Kingdom Off-Road Motorcycle Club's £100,000 grant will go towards creating an off-road motorcycle track for young people and adults, with money used to help buy land in the South and West Fife area. 

A similar initiative proved very successful in Cardenden with evidence that this sort of facility can be a successful deterrent to anti-social behaviour. 

EATS Rosyth will use their £100,000 to build on their popular programme of activities with a project worker and community gardener set to work in primary schools to develop a 'whole system approach' to eating fruit and vegetables with children and their families.

Cairneyhill Parish Church was awarded £100,000 to refurbish the congregation-owned manse building to provide a café and community space.

There's also £9,500 for Simply Local Kincardine to expand their existing garden and welcome more members who can then grow their own produce; £18,600 for West Fife Woodlands volunteers to purchase large equipment to help with their ongoing path and woodland maintenance; and £9,900 for Hillend Community Hub to secure land for a polytunnel, shed, benches and a picnic area, raised beds and an accessible garden.

The £91,554 allocated to Fife Sports and Leisure Trust will be spent on an outreach programme - within the four main community assistance hubs at Parkgate Centre in Rosyth, Inverkeithing Civic Centre, Oakley and Valleyfield community centres - to provide physical and wellbeing classes for locals who ordinarily wouldn't have access to them.

There was also £4,634 for Cairneyhill in Bloom, £35,726 for Culross Stables Community Hub Bakery, £61,480 for Grow West Fife – Feeding West Fife, £60,000 to help Cairneyhill Scout Group buy a new minibus, £11,714 for play improvements in Torryburn and Newmills and £26,000 to improve access at Camdean Youth Facility. 

Dalgety Bay and Hillend Community Council received £20,000 for wayfinding signage, The Old Town House charity was given £27,000, there was £27,315 for off-street parking at Brock Street in North Queensferry and £40,000 for improvements at North Queensferry Community Complex. 

As well as £852,633 for the 20 projects, the committee allocated a further £30,179 from the local community planning budget.

This will go on a 'Bring the Brood' programme at Inverkeithing High School where families will be able to take part in crafts sessions, play sports and attend information workshops, with £10,000 each for an outdoor gym at High Valleyfield and a new woodland pathway linking the villages of Saline, Oakley and Comrie.