THE official launch of the Cowdenbeath Day/Night Challenge will shortly take place and rotarians heard on Thursday that the initiative is all about the town building on the solid commercial history it has.

But Cowdenbeath Rotary Club members were left in no doubt that the Day/Night Challenge was about the people of the town playing their part in helping enhance the image of the town centre.

The guest speakers were Fife Council’s Cowdenbeath Area Services Manager, Kevin Sayer, and Andrew Walker, a member of the steering group which is guiding the initiative.

Mr Sayer said that the Day/Night Challenge was one of the follow-ups to the public meeting held almost a year ago, at Broad Street Bowling Club, when over 60 people turned up to discuss the declining footfall in High Street.

“There was a real mix at the meeting of business people and the general public interested in the future of Cowdenbeath as a retail hub, and many ideas were floated that night to try and encourage more people to shop in the town.

“The steering group was established in January and has set the wheels in motion to invite proposals from the people and organisations in Cowdenbeath of how the ambience of the High Street and shopping precinct can be improved.” Mr Walker, a member of the council planning team, explained that the problems being experienced in Cowdenbeath were the same posing problems to town centres all over the UK.

“There are so many changes that have taken place over the past 10 years in how people do their shopping,” he said, “On line has become a real challenge with people able to do their weekly shopping by a click of a mouse for any sort of retail needs.

“The thing about Cowdenbeath High Street is that it has a lot more going for it than many other towns, with over 75 per cent of shops independently owned and many by local people who have a real personal interest in the High Street.

“There are local butchers and bakers and many other local well established businesses and there are more in the pipeline such as an arts crafts business and a soft play centre, so things are happening, “It is how we can further enhance the retail hub and give the town centre a nice fresh image.” Mr Sayer added that the steering group had a logo prepared and was also looking at getting one of the current empty shop premises as a base that people could visit to leave their proposals.

“We will haved the proposal forms available within the next couple of weeks and we want people to come forward and give us their ideas on how the town centre’s image can be improved,” he went on, “We also have people of all ages involved in this project including five sixth year pupils at Beath High.” Mr Walker concluded, “We hope that the people of Cowdenbeath will get involved in the Day/Night Challenge for it is important that we can see initiatives produced that can make a difference to the attractiveness of the town.

“It is not about what the council thinks is right for Cowdenbeath it is what the people of the town thinks is right.” There will be a £50,000 pot of cash to back the various proposals that come forward so steering group wants people to come up with ideas.

The next meeting of the steering group will take place on Thursday at 3pm in the Town House.