COUNTRYSIDE between Lochgelly High School and Lochore Meadows Country Park has been suffering from renewed fly-tipping.

And Benarty Community Council has launched an appeal to the perpetrators to think about the damage they are doing to the image of the area which boasts Fife's biggest visitor attraction, Lochore Meadows Country Park.

The area is around the new Fife Cycle Park facility in Glencraig, and despite Lochgelly Recycling Centre being only 250 yards away, the dumpers would rather use the area, which is all part of the Fife Countryside Park complex, to deposit their rubbish.

Benarty Community Council has become increasingly concerned by the volume of fly tipping taking place near the Meadows and they have split their ranks into sub committees looking at the villages of Glencraig, Crosshill, Lochore and Ballingry and the surrounding countryside.

Brian Menzies and Willie Clarke are the duo who have been studying problems in Crosshill and Glencraig and last week they came across a variety of building debris simply thrown into the countryside, running from the former cottage owned by Biddy Rush, on the west side of the main road at Glencraig down to the £1m+ Cycle Park.

Brian and Willie are popular campaigners on this subject and have been shocked that so much has been lobbed into the countryside simply yards from the Recycling Centre.

Said Brian: "This looks simply like building debris, something that would be welcomed by the Recycling Centre.

"There are doors, rubble, bits of pipe and general debris lobbed into the countryside, and in other bits there are loads of flower pots that have been left.

"This is totally sending out the wrong message about Benarty in general, and the Lochore Meadows Country in particular, and of course we have the new Cycle Park too."

Willie Clarke added: "It is all so unnecessary, the illegal dumpers probably spend as much time off loading this debris into the countryside as they would do if they took it to the Recycling Centre.

"I realise there is a charge for off loading at the Centre but surely that would be a lot less than the fine they will get if they are caught fly tipping.

"We have such amazing facilities here, such as the country park and the Cycle Track, yet we have people who are prepared to dump building debris within yards of them, that surely is wrong."

The campaigning duo added that the other teams from the Community Council had come across other problem spots with Hill Road, in Ballingry, being the worst hit.

The organisation is committed to trying to stop this happening by persuading people that the recycling centres are there for a purpose and they should be using these.

Said Brian: "Hopefully we can get through to people who are dumping illegally and those who may be thinking about dumping in the countryside that this is not the way ahead.

"The Meadows is such a beautiful feature created out of pit spoil and is something that we should be solidly protecting and maybe when these people think about the damage they are causing they will reconsider their actions."