COWDENBEATH Councillor Darren Watt has blasted Fife Council for 'wasting precious time and resources' on what he describes as "a ridiculous and pointless gimmick."

On Thursday, Glasgow-based studio NADFLY was drafted in by Fife Council to bring a splash of colour and use art to kick-start a conversation about the town's development by wrapping more than 60 bollards with multi-coloured paper.

Cllr Watt continued: "Residents, businesses and shop owners of Cowdenbeath are completely fed up with endless conversations, discussions and meetings.

"They want action, not more lip-service. Wrapping brightly coloured paper around some bollards for a week might bring short-term hope and enthusiasm but that will quickly diminish when we are back to reality and see little to no difference or improvements.

"If Fife Council were serious about striking up conversations regarding the future of our town, I would suggest they stop trying to be too radical and instead focus on the infrastructure we are so blessed to have and deal with the fundamental issues.

"Our High Street and Town Centre needs more on-street parking, safer pavements and a general deep clean."

The member for Cowdenbeath and Kelty added: "Also we need to be looking more into how we deal with the ridiculous number of derelict buildings and shops and then take swift and decisive action.

"We all know that High Streets up and down the UK are struggling but Cowdenbeath has so much potential compared to other areas.

"We have a growing population, a strong community and one of the few High Streets that you can drive right through.

"Plus shoppers can enjoy free parking anywhere in town. We lost several businesses last month and we're in danger of losing more if we continue to waste money and time on silly stunts like this."

Gemma Muirhead, owner of Jane Kirk Hair & Beauty on the High Street echoed Cllr Watt's comments and said: "We should be focusing on how to attract business, foot traffic and interest in our town. Wrapping candy-striped paper almost makes a mockery of the High Street."

Entrepreneur Ewen Mackenzie, who owns the gift shop "Something Different" on the High Street told us: "Sorry, not for me. Even though I had the person who was putting these up in my shop, I'm still wondering what the point of it all is. "We need to get the empty shops filled, that would make the High Street looking more colourful."