TWO local councillors have appealed for something to be done to make the road running past the new housing estate in Ballingry safer.

The busy Lochleven Road runs past the estate, which currently has around 20 homes finished and another 30 under construction, east of the road linking Lochgelly and Loch Leven.

The road also links the large Ballingry community with the A92, via Benarty and Lochgelly, and at times it is very busy, Cowdenbeath Area Committee heard on Wednesday.

Lochtyburn Avenue is the first street in the new estate to be occupied, but Councillors Mary Lockhart and Lea McLelland feel that an accident is simply waiting to happen.

There is a plan to have exhaustive traffic calming measures on this road once the new estate is complete through a £105,000 project, but that is still be many months away.

Said Mary Lockhart: “Lochleven Road, running past Ballingry to the Fife boundary, has always been a very busy stretch of carriageway but these days it is even busier and now we have residents in Lochtyburn Avenue trying to come out of their street onto this racetrack of a stretch.

“We have have speed cushions but these certainly do not deter vans and lorries who regularly use this road and really some cars go too fast over these.

“Drivers trying to join Lochleven Road, from Lochtyburn Avenue, can find it very difficult at times as vehicles race along the road.”

Ms Lockhart added that there was a crossing just down from Lochtyburn Avenue but the lights did not seem to be operational on a regular basis.

Councillor McLelland said: “Near misses on this stretch of road are a regular occurrence and if we have to wait until the completion of all the houses before the measures to slow traffic are complete it could be too late to save someone from being hurt.

“This has been a busy road for years and has got even busier. We can’t wait until the housing estate is complete.”

Roads and Transportation’s Ian Jones told the meeting that he would ensure that what had been said would be passed on to his colleague Phil Clarke, who looks after roads matters in the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area.