COWDENBEATH MSP Annabelle Ewing last week made a plea in the Scottish Parliament that communities in her constituency should get a fair percentage of the £4m+ town centre fund the Scottish Government has made available to Fife Council.

During General Questions in the Parliament this week, Ms Ewing raised the issue of the distribution of the £4.3million allocation Fife Council has received from the Town Centre Fund.

Ms Ewing said: “I was delighted that Fife Council have been allocated £4,335,000 from the Scottish Government’s Town Centre Fund and I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the opportunity this money represents to all communities across Fife by raising the matter in the Chamber of the Scottish Parliament

“I have now written to the Chief Executive of Fife Council asking what the rules will be that will govern the allocation by Fife Council of this funding throughout the Kingdom.

“I have also asked the Chief Executive to clarify whether any determination has been made as to which towns in my Cowdenbeath constituency will, in principle, be eligible for support and what now needs to be done by those interested in securing funding.

“I very much hope that Fife Council will reach out to local communities to see what plans they have within their own towns that could be supported from these funds.

“I firmly believe that a much greater synergy will be achieved in putting these valuable funds to best use if the inspiration and energy is drawn from the communities themselves rather than imposed in a top-down fashion from the centre.”

Cowdenbeath this [past five months has been benefitting from SUSTRANS funding which has seen a number of improvements made.

Finance Minister Derek Mackay said: "First, I welcome the warm comments from Annabelle Ewing for those resources, which will be transformative for our town centres.

"The precise figure for Fife is £4,335,000. The campaign to ensure that there is fairness for every part of the constituency that Annabelle Ewing represents has, I think, already begun, and Fife Council will be well aware of it.

"It will be for the council to determine the distribution of that money".