Issue 46 April 2016

Post date: 08-Apr-2016 20:27:42

Celebrating John Crane’s and Jim Hensman’s Contribution To Village Life

As mentioned in last month’s Bulletin, everyone living in Saline and Steelend is invited to gather at Saline Golf Club at 6.30pm on Friday 22 April to recognise and celebrate the contribution that John Crane and Jim Hensman have made to our community over a period of more than twenty years. It will also be an opportunity to acknowledge the role of other individuals and groups in enriching village life. Tea and coffee will be available from 6.00pm and the bar will be open. Meals will be available from 5.00pm and also after the formalities. Places are limited so if you would like to eat at the Golf Club please telephone the Club in advance.

March Community Council Meeting

There was disappointment that Ian Jones, Lead Professional from Fife Council Transportation and Environment Services, was unable to attend the meeting to discuss issues around drainage and sewers, and the consequent flooding problems that arise around our area. However, there was plenty of lively discussion around other items on the agenda.

The meeting was pleased to learn that the Play Area Group is making some progress in resolving the flooding problems at the playground on North Road. The waters have subsided and Fife Council have undertaken to jet the drains which they believe may have been blocked. Arrangements are in hand to formally constitute the group which will receive more than £1500 from donations made in memory of local mum and grandmother Donna Chesby who died recently, and from a collection in her name taken at the school end-of-term church service.

The poor bus service continues to aggravate many people and Cllr Stewart’s efforts to arrange a meeting with Fife Council and Stagecoach are being ignored. It was noted that the planning application for new housing off North Road behind The Glebe are scheduled to go to committee on 27 April. There are a substantial number of objections on the Council website and concerned local residents will be petitioning councillors who serve on the committee before the meeting.

Residents from Saline and Steelend had attended the Dunfermline: An Age-Friendly City event and participated in workshops to identify the measures necessary to achieve this. High on the list of priorities was public transport improvements. Our community has also been represented at the report back of the Longannet Task Force, and at the West Fife Villages meeting which reviewed the action plan emerging from the Longannet report. There is concern that little effort is being made to engage with local communities to create a ‘vision’ for the reuse of the site which is of national, strategic importance. Local interest in re-opening the Longannet railway line to create a passenger connection from Alloa through to Edinburgh achieved coverage on national radio and television.

However, there was disappointment that unless people willing to take on the responsibility come forward, Saline Gala will not take place for a second year running. Like other village institutions, it has for far too long relied on the efforts of a small but dedicated group of local people.

The planning application for a Remembrance Garden on land at Bandrum created the longest discussion at the meeting. From a small parking area just off the road a small path would meander up the steep slope through the woodland, along which relatives would scatter a loved-one’s ashes. A previous application for a natural burial area on the same land was rejected several years ago on the grounds of unsatisfactory access arrangements. For the current application the applicant has commissioned a report from a leading transportation engineer that seeks to demonstrate that the appropriate conditions in terms of visibility splays at the entrance can be met by a slight repositioning and regrading of the verges. It also makes assumptions about vehicle speeds along that section of road. The view of the meeting was that these are unrealistic. There was concern too about the economic viability of the proposal. It was noted that the application includes a log cabin and there was concern that the long term intention might be development of other parts of the site. These concerns will be passed on to Fife Council.

There was some relief that statistics provided by the Community Health Team at NHS Fife demonstrate that in percentage terms the number of cancer diagnoses in Saline and Gowkhall over the three years up to 2014 is no greater than elsewhere in Fife. There had been concern that the number of people from Saline is disproportionally high. This can be partly explained by our population being relatively small. Ten people out of 1,500 seems more significant than, say, 100 out of 15,000.

The meeting also had the opportunity to review the project to construct twelve huts on Forestry Commission land at Carnock Moor, beyond Cowstrandburn. The proposal is a pilot for the Scotland-wide 1000 Huts initiative. ‘Hutting’ was a popular movement in the early part of the last century and provided the opportunity for families from over-crowded, unhygienic inner cities to get some fresh air. The huts being proposed at Carnock Moor are very simple and have no electricity or running water. Ten of the huts would be allocated by a lottery and two would be for community/ educational use. Most people at the meeting liked the idea but had concerns about security, vandalism and sanitation. There were questions too about whether the huts are being sold or provided on some other basis. The group have resolved issues about building regulations that had been preventing things moving forward and hope to submit a planning application soon.

One new item of business was traffic speeds and accidents on the West Road. Tom Dodds who lives on the edge of the village along the West Road has documented these over a period of a few months. At the road safety meeting with the Lead Officer from Fife Council transportation team last year, the West Road was not identified as a priority but the information now provided suggests that perhaps it should be. The meeting noted the measures that have been taken at Upper Steelend and it was agreed that Fife Council should be asked to carry out similar investigative work into traffic speeds and driver behaviour on the West Road that had led to them being introduced.

The meeting concluded with a discussion about insurance cover for community groups operating in the Saline and Steelend area. The Community Council obtains insurance cover for its activities through Fife Council and this can be extended to any sub-committees. However, the cover provided is extremely limited and the definition of a sub-committee is narrow. The majority of members on a sub-committee have to be elected members of the community council. It does not cover activities outside meetings and any group undertaking one-off events to which the general public are invited need to ensure they carry out risk assessments and obtain the appropriate insurance cover.

The Editor reserves the right to refuse, edit or factually correct all items submitted for publication. All views expressed in this Bulletin are purely those of the author of the item concerned and are not necessarily those of the Editor or of the Communications Group as a whole.

Friends and Neighbours Project

Over the last year, residents of Saline and Steelend have been making upwards of 500 ceramic tiles. These are now being assembled into two large mosaics which will be mounted for permanent display in Saline and Steelend, with an unveiling ceremony planned for late May. A lot of grouting will be required! Please contact Liz on 851493 if you would be willing to lend a hand – no experience necessary.

Saline & Blairingone Parish Church News

The Monday Club meetings are planned to restart on Monday 18 April at 3.00pm till 4.30pm in the Church Hall with the usual programme of games, stories, crafts and snacks. All pupils in P4. P5, and P6 will be very welcome. Further details will be available on posters or from Lorna Cochrane.

The Quiz Night planned for 22 April has been postponed due to clashing with another village event. Further plans will be publicised in due course.

The Study Group resumes meeting on Thursday 14 April at 10.30am in the Church Session Room when we will be using material prepared by Christian Aid in preparation for Christian Aid Week (15-21 May).

The Walking Group have Saturday walks planned for 9 and 23 April.

The Church Guild AGM will be held on Monday 18 April and the final meeting for the session will be an outing (details have still to be arranged).

Full of these and other regular activities as well as Worship Services will be found in the Parish News and on the website. A warm welcome awaits newcomers to any of these events.

Shall We Dance?

Plans are afoot to celebrate, with music and dance, the construction of our two mosaic panels, one in Saline, one in Steelend. The tiles for these mosaics have all been designed by local residents with help from artists Marylla Ferguson and Liz Harvey. If the funding application is successful there will be an opportunity to work with a top choreographer on a dance piece to mark the occasion. Enthusiasm and a willingness to commit to rehearsals in May/early June are the principle requirements - age and dance experience are really not so important. Until the funding gets the go-ahead, details must remain sketchy but once it has been officially announced there may be a rush to join, so if you want to register your interest now contact Ian from the drumming group on