CROSSGATES Community Council members are continuing to wait to find out what the position is with the remaining money in the Muir Dean Trust Fund.

And at Monday night's meeting of the community council the matter is to be fully discussed and the organisation would welcome members of the public to attend in the community centre.

The Trust Fund was set up to distribute to communities involved with effects of the Muir Dean Opencast Mine, which was sited to the south of Crossgates and Fordell.

Community council members representing Crossgates, Mossgreen and Fordell, have been trying to find out what has happened to the funds received from ATH Resources between 2009 and 2017, as they have been unable to find much data on the Fund.

That Trust Fund was set up in association with guidance from Fife Council and ATH resources in 2009, and since then it has been managed by a Trustee board composed of various locally elected Trustees.

According to the Trust Deed documents, the villages surrounding the opencast workings, in particular, Crossgates and Fordell, in the environs of the opencast site, were the main named beneficiaries of these funds.

These communities were promised a substantial monetary amount via this Trust Fund, which the Community Council and the villagers are only now just finding out that these funds could have been spent in other areas only slightly affected by these workings, compared to the stated, and particularly, intended recipients right on the perimeter of the site.

The Community Council say that while the Muir Dean Trust is registered with the “Organisation of Scottish Charities” (O.S.C.R.) the

Trust is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act., however, it is understood that at the meeting held on May 7 2019, the current Trustees of the Muir Dean Trust, agreed that the Trust would be fully transparent and that a full list of all awards made by the Trustees, since the setting up of the Trust would be made publicly available.

A statement released by the community council this week stated: "According to the published annual accounts the Trust has received around £672,056 in income and interest payments, over the lifetime of the Trust, from ATH Resources before it went into liquidation.

"Information on the Trust along with the published Annual Accounts, can be requested by applying to the Secretary of the Muir Dean Environmental Trust at the Trust principal address, as listed on the O.S.C.R. website. (Inverkeithing Civic Centre, 10 Queen Sreet, Inverkeithing, KY11 1PA.)

"Since the Trust was formed in 2008 and awards commenced in 2009, it is understood that groups within the following areas have received awards, Inverkeithing, Crossgates, Rosyth, Dalgety Bay and Aberdour, along with the Fordell Scouts. Awards amounting to some £351,660 have been made, up to and including 2017.

"The Trust has not been fully operative since 2016-2017, due to difficulties created by both the loss and the resignation of Trustees and also due to Local Government changes.

"Qualifying groups will be able to apply to the Trust, when access to the remaining funds of around £320,000 becomes available to the Trustees.

"In relation to the setting-up, administration and awarding of funds from the Muir Dean Trust Fund, there is a perception locally among the residents of Crossgates, Mossgreen and Fordell, that they have been badly let down on all levels, initially by those who set up the fund in the early years and latterly by those who have had their part in administrating and awarding the funds over the years".

Local councillor Darren Watt commented: "We really need to get to the bottom of what has been going on with the Muir Dean Trust Fund and ensure the remaining funds are distributed, on application, to deserving causes."