A ONE time successful social enterprise that was producing a specialist counselling service for the entire Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area has closed its doors amid concerns that tax payers' money has gone missing.

Urban Therapy was set up four years ago and was based at BRAG's Crosshill Centre and over that time attracted support from Cowdenbeath Area Committee of upwards of £90,000.

Urban Therapy offered a varied counselling service with counsellors who worked from a number of disciplines including Integrative, Psychodynamic, and Person Centred as well as interests or specialisms for example, forces veterans and substance problems, relationship difficulties and terminal illness.

Urban Therapy was also a teaching centre training candidates from introductory levels up to the Diploma in Therapeutic Counselling.

Through backing from the Area Committee is was able to develop its number of counsellors and increase its training spectrum.

However, as the chairman of Cowdenbeath Area Committee pointed out this week, there have been concerns about the direction the Social Enterprise was heading over the past few months and in February it closed its doors.

Councillor Mark Hood said: "This is very sad indeed for a number of reasons.

"It was a project which was providing expert counselling for people with limited resources who were facing difficult problems and it was also training counsellors.

"Over the past four years a great number of people were trained by Urban Therapy and they have been making a real difference to people's lives.

"Last year the Area Committee gave £30,000 worth of investment towards a men's counselling course to produce 15 counsellors who in return for this support would give free advice sessions over a period of time to local people who needed these.

"However, with its doors closing we are left in limbo as to whether or not we will see these counselling sessions be available."

Urban Therapy was run by a board of directors but it is understood that the membership of it changed regularly with no one staying long on it.

Councillor Hood said that he would be asking Area Services Manager, Kevin Sayer, to carry out a full investigation into what has happened at Urban Therapy.

He concluded: "There are a great many questions needing answered here and it is a learning curve for us as a local authority.

"We have taken a lot on trust from what Urban Therapy said but it would appear not everything has been done correctly."