THE Central Fife Community Rail Partnership is progressing now that an interim board has been formed.

Through the Central Fife Crime Prevention Panel the board was established with Cardenden man Dave Roy as interim chairman. Vice chair is James Mann with Gordon Mackie as secretary.

The panel's meeting last Wednesday heard that it was an important stage as ScotRail were keen to see the project established which could see £10,000 pumped in each year for projects which will bring improvements to the area's three stations at Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly and Cardenden.

Dave Roy said that several Community Rail Partnerships had been established in differed parts of the country and these had all made significant changes to the environment of local stations.

He added: "We have a good hard working interim set-up in place and already we have a number of ideas in mind to help improve community safety around our stations.

"Each one has its own particular situations which will need to be addressed but there is funding from the rail company which can make a real difference.

"For instance we have the cycle project being developed near Lochgelly Station and that is one which will bring its own questions to be addressed in terms of forming a good link with the Station Road stop as there will be a lot of people who will look to use the train to get to the Cycle Loop at Glencraig from different parts of Scotland.

"Both the other stations have much different issues such as disabled access at the Cowdenbeath station while in Cardenden there are completely different circumstances that need to be addressed."

The interim board will work to put the right structure in place to ensure that the project progresses to make a real difference to the local stations.