THE damage being caused to Lochgelly Public Park by people driving their cars onto the grassed area to watch football matches is worrying the town's community council.

Indeed, the community council invited Fife Council's parks and open spaces' officers for the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area, Colin Davidson and John O’Neil, to their last meeting discuss some issues that have been ongoing at recent meetings, these being mainly about vehicles using the public park, the lack of lighting in the public and the state of the paving in the park.

Said council secretary Louise Brown: "We need to work together with the football teams, who hire the football pitch at the bottom of the park, on this matter as the main problem is caused by supporters of both the home and away teams who drive over the grass to park their cars along the fencing that borders the pitch rather than parking on the road.

"We are going to work with the community policing team and the safer communities’ officers to try to stop this.

"We are looking into putting signs up to highlight the fact that people shouldn’t be driving over the park, as when a member of the community council was nearly hit by a car in the park one Sunday morning, she was asked by the driver 'where does it say I cant drive here like?'"

Added Louise: "In the past, fencing and barriers etc had been looked at to prevent drivers accessing the park but the cost was in the tens of thousands of pounds and in the current financial climate this is, unfortunately, not an option.

"However, something has to be done to encourage this action to stop as these people are causing unnecessary damage to what is an outstanding feature in the town."