I WOULD say that Councillor Alex Campbell and MSP Alex Rowley are totally correct to question the capabilities of services in the village to deal with a sharp increase in population.

Now while the 900 new homes forecast for the Kelty area are not going to arrive overnight the fact is that the decision making process to deal with an increase in the population by a substantial percentage would move very slowly.

So it is right that an assessment of facilties to cater for health needs and educational requirements should be taking place now, not when the new homes start going up.

The development of several hundred new homes would take Kelty’s population to towards 8000 people which is not far short of Cowdenbeath’s size.

That certainly would suggest that the there would be a real need for a new school and better health facilities and to get these in place would take time.

We have seen how quickly new houses can go up in our local communities. In Cowdenbeath, at the north western end, and the northern part of Lochgelly and of course in our village here it has expanded greatly over the past 15 years.

So if this planning idea goes ahead and we do get 900 new homes the moves to increase the facilities here, including leisure, will have to keep pace with the building work.

I hope our councillors are successful in trying to ensure that this happens for anything otherwise would be disappointing.

KELTY VIEW.