JOHNSTON Park residents in Cowdenbeath have a commitment from local councillors that they want to see the problems of unadopted and increasingly uneven paths and road surfaces in the estate solved.

The full meeting of Fife Council heard it said on Thursday that local authority has said it would fully adopt the unadopted areas once these have been repaired but with residents fiercely opposing this and refusing to make any financial contributions, progress has begun to stall.

Councillor Darren Watt put forward a motion to the meeting asking that the roads and paths in Johnston Park that are unadopted by brought up to standard and adopted by the council. But he was defeated when an ammendment by the SNP/Labour administration was accepted that the matter go local ward and the Cowdenbeath Area Committee.

Cllr Watt said this week: “Although I failed in my objective, I am more positive than I was last week.

"During the debate, co-Leader of Fife Council, Cllr David Ross provided me with valuable feedback and Cllr Helen Law also offered words of encouragement having experience dealing with similar issues previously."

Meanwhile Councillor Alex Campbell said there was no ‘logical explanation’ as to why at the time when the estate was built and the majority of the roads and pavements were adopted how a few were missed out. He said Fife Housing Association and council must take responsibility. He continued; “No one has been able to explain to me how this situation arose in the first place and the only conclusion I can come up with is that a few pavements and a bit of road was just missed out of the agreement at that time.

"Unless someone is able to explain this anomaly which to date they have not, then I am of the view that the housing association and the council should accept responsibility and get on with agreeing a joint programme of work to bring these pavements and small bit of road up to the standard of the rest of the estate so the council can then formally adopt them into its responsibility.

"Residents only found out they were apparently liable when Fife Housing Association informed them at a meeting held in September 2016".

The Labour councillor is now asking the Cowdenbeath Area manager to broker such an agreement with the backing of all ward councillors.