LOCHGELLY Community Council was pleased with the way that the people of the town reacted to their survey of public opinion on the AMEC proposal to build a wind farm on a site near Lochore Meadows Country Park.
The plan was last week withdrawn but the community councillors were happy with the response from the people of Lochgelly and they have published their findings.
Community councillors spent four to six weeks delivering leaflets and speaking to people in different parts of the town.
They went out and delivered 4000 of these leaflets and a total of 148 responses were received, 43 of them through a door to door exercise and through engagement stalls, with 98 online.
Secretary George Elder explained that a pleasing aspect of the exercise was that the responses came from all areas of the town and not just those to the north who would be closest to the wind farm.
The responses showed that 41 of these were in favour of the project and 98 against but if the development went ahead 86 supported a Lochgelly group being put together to to form a consortium to look at the community ownership of a turbine.
The community council was delighted with the exercise which they felt increased the profile of the organisation and its work.
Secretary George Elder said, “Having been a community councillor for less than a year getting the chance to engage with the people of the town and gather their views was one I relished.
“That AMEC have decided to withdraw from the development should not take away from the fact many residents chose to provide their views and for that we are very grateful.
“The community council is committed to maintaining this level of engagement as there are many difficult issues ahead of us that will require the input of the people of the town and we are looking forward to hearing their views.” Chairman James Glen added, “The community council would like to thank all the residents that took time to engage with council members on this issue and we hope that they will do similar in the future.
“Although AMEC decided to withdraw their proposals there were many positive benefits from the engagement process with it raising awareness of the community council and its role in addressing isses affecting the town and we will be continuing with the idea to have a special stall at t
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