THE situation in Hill of Beath is certainly needing some close attention.

The mess that is happening on seemingly regular occasions to the road surface of the B981 surely cannot be allowed to continue.

The village's community council is totally correct to be up in arms about the situation and really need the backing of Fife Council.

Local councillor, Gary Guichan, is committed to making things happen and hopefully he will get the backing of officials.

Farmer John Wilson has been trying hard to keep the road surface clear by using the road sweeper mechanism but the fact that at this time of year there is so much moisture around just does not really help at all.

Each lorry that comes out of the field is inevitably going to throw soil on to the road, and it is such a busy road that passing traffic will carry it.

Maybe the answer is that operations at the field should be limited to the spring and summer months when the weather will be drier.

For make no mistake these sort of lorry movements in mid winter will simply bring more and more problems of the sort experienced last week.

Meanwhile it was interesting to hear that SEPA is committed to rigorous monitoring of happenings at the Fife Ethylene Plant.

The flaring in the early autumn turnaround maintenance was something which was spectacular and which caused major concern among members of the communities of Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly.

While Exxon/Mobil ensured that the public was warned about the flaring the intensity was something not experienced for many a long day.

Clearly MP Roger Mullin was right to step in on behalf of his constituents and he has been able to get a commitment from SEPA that they will be 'rigorously monitoring' what is going on at Mossmorran.

And the fact that Exxon/Mobil want to encourage the people of the area to go an visit the plant means that any queries people have can be taken to the operators.

So things are moving forward well on that front.