FIFE Coastal & Countryside Trust has confirmed it is to pull out of running the Lochore Meadows Country Park just months before its management pilot was due to come up for renewal.

The Times understands that the Fife Coastal & Countryside Trust (FCCT) told staff just before Christmas that it would no longer be managing the Meadows Country Park.

The chairman of Cowdenbeath Area Committee, Councillor Mark Hood, confirmed that he had heard that this was the case and he said that basically the Trust's trial period of running the park was originally to end in the summer, but a decision had been taken by their board not to seek to continue to run the park and they were to cease involvement at the end of March.

He said: "It is something which will have to be sorted out pretty quickly for the park is such an important facility for this area and Fife in general."

The Trust's Chief Executive, Chris Broome, has said that the decision had been made on experienced gained over the pilot period and that the Trust was not best placed to continue to operate the park under the prevailing circumstances.

The FCCT, which took over the running of the park and visitor centre as a pilot project in July 2014, closed the existing visitor centre in October, ahead of demolition scheduled for November 15. Demolition did not take place in the wake of community protest at the plans for the new centre which was aired at two well-attended public meetings in Benarty in November and December.

At both meetings the FCCT was heavily criticised over a lack of public consultation. The Lochore Meadows Advisory Group, convened by FCCT to facilitate engagement between the Trust, council and communities around the Meedies, was, community body the Meedies Action Panel claimed, did not meet for ten months between January and December 2016.

Tom Kinnaird, a member of the Meedies Action Panel (MAP), said: "We were very disappointed that no one at FCCT or Fife Council responded when we made our concerns about the visitor centre public. Parts have already been dismantled and damaged in preparation for demolition, and the building has effectively been abandoned and left to rot. Already parents whose children use the adjacent playground have expressed safety worries.

"Now we learn on the grapevine that the FCCT is to pull out of the Meedies completely.

"Fife Council owns the FCCT so the buck stops with the local authority. Instead of continuing to keep the communities around the Meedies in the dark, Fife Council should be working with them to sort this mess out.

"The leader of Fife Council told us a report on the situation was being prepared for presentation to the Executive Committee on January 24. In the meantime no one seems to be taking responsibility and the existing centre, which has had tens of thousands spent on upgrades in the last couple of years, and is being allowed to go to rack and ruin."