THANK you for providing me with the opportunity to respond to this letter from Linda Holt. I will try to cover the points raised by the author, but it appears that they have sadly been misinformed about roles in our community council. But given that they are not from our town, I wouldn’t expect them to know how Lochgelly Community Council is structured. Equally it is disapointing that they never took the opportunity to speak to me at the meeting, or at least before such a personal attack was made.

(1) I am not a representative from LCC to the Community Liaison Forum. We do not have a representative appointed from the Community Council. I do attend on a completely voluntary basis and indeed did feedback at the LCC that I had requested one of the turbines, should the extension be approved, be donated to the local communities. It is not my role or responsibility to publicise these meetings.

(2) I am appointed to attend as a representative to the Four Winds Trust as a trustee and we (myself and the other representative) do feedback at each LCC meeting.

(3) The agenda is agreed in advance with the secretary. As we had previously taken a stance on the extension then there was no need for it being added again.

(4) It is the secretary’s role to formally communicate on matters of this nature. (i.e planning objections). Prior to the meeting last week, our secretary advised that he didn’t feel in a position to record the objection due to his other activities. He therefore asked me to do so and provided details on Monday past (15th September) (5) Reference is made to people not applying for funds. During the discussion about funding, I recalled recent comments made in the Courier newspaper about the fund being seen as a blackmail from Kennedy. This was not about stopping people applying, so I am unclear where the authour is getting this from.

I was reminded by the secretary that my role was unrelated to the planning application and as such should continue to encourage people and community councillors to publicise the fund.

It does appear that the authour has a difficulty with Kennedy Renewables and would encourage them to raise their grievances with them directly.

STEVIE MURRAY, Chairman, Lochgelly Community Council.

Also see page 13.