I THINK it's astonishing that Alex Rowley thinks it's appropriate to spend £1m of our tax on clearing a pile of carpets, yet the jewel in Fife's crown, Lochore Meadows is only worth £900,000 over the last 4 years.

The Meedies is a Top 20 visitor attraction in Scotland, attracting more footfall than Edinburgh Zoo yet Mr Rowley refuses to join the local community campaign for an improvement in facilities.

Fife Council want to cut the visitor centre in half using money Mr Rowley pledged as council leader in 2013, rather than work with the SNP and bring in additional funding to modernise the park.

The new centre design is so hideous, and small, the Benarty community filled Lochore Miners Institute twice, to voice concerns, and a deal was struck with Fife Council to reject the plans and go back to the drawing board and the funding organisations.

However, Council Leader David Ross has dismissed the agreement with the local community as not being representative of the wider public view. When I challenged him on this, as there was no public consultation, he responded that there is no need for public involvement on this and 'I'm minded to proceed'.

I've asked Alex Rowley, as our MSP and former Lochs Ward Councillor, who specifically laid out the plans for a £2m visitor Centre at Lochore Meadows before he left for Holyrood, to support the community call for a return to the drawing board. He has so far declined to offer any support, stating that: "I will always do what I think is on the side of the community. In this instance the community is the whole community of Kelty, Benarty and surrounding areas as well as all of Fife where the largest numbers of visitors to the park come from."

He added, "I have a meeting with the CEO of Fife Council on Friday and there is one item on the agenda, Lochore Meadows Country Park. I will reflect what you have said and what the council position is once I have the information I hope to get on Friday."

Maybe when Alex meets with Steve Grimmond on Friday he can request that Fife Council waste management trucks can nip along to Lathalmond from Wellwood to collect the pile of carpets. It's a 1.5 mile trip taking 3 minutes, so presumably with a loader at Lathalmond and three or four container lorries, the whole mess can be cleared in an afternoon, costing a few thousand pounds. The offenders' bank accounts should have been seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act to pay for it all, and the funding could be better spent on other things, like Lochore Meadows.

TOM KINNAIRD

Ballingry