THERE is no doubt that the news that the Land Art Project element of the restoration of the St Ninian’s Opencast ming site at Kelty is not going to be completed is a blow to the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area.

While it was a very ambitious idea, parts of it had been completed and looked pretty impressive, but Scottish Coal going out of business was always going to put a big question mark over it.

Indeed, at one stage there were worries that the restoration of the massive opencast mining scheme might not happen and a Westfield II situation might occur.

Mercifully that has not happened and the new contractors at St Ninian’s, Hargreaves, are committed to restoring the site to rolling fields.

That has to be a bonus, for when Scottish Coal went out of business a situation like Westfield, where the scars of mining were left for decades, could have happened.

While there will only be a couple of the land art elements in the finished project and it will not be the big visitor attraction first hoped for, the site will be brought back into the countryside and that has to be welcomed.