BALLINGRY councillors are concerned at armed police being seen on the streets of the village.

Mary Lockhart and Lea McLelland told Cowdenbeath Area Committee that people have been alarmed to see gun toting officers surrounding properties.

Councillor Lockhart said on Wednesday: "Street violence is not good for people to see on our streets.

"A child was very alarmed when they saw armed officers around a house.

"I have heard that there seems to be more and more drugs problems on our streets at the moment and I know that this could be causing the issue."

Councillor McLelland agreed that this sort of situation can be very alarming for all age groups in the community.

Chief Inspector Paul Dick, the head of policing in the Dunfermline and Cowdenbeath area, told the members of the committee: "We have been getting a lot of intelligence from the public about drug related issues in Ballingry which have fire arm aspects and that is the reason for the armed turn-outs when raids are being made.

"We have people on our radar with regards to these drugs issues and we will be working collectively to deal with the issues."

Community Inspector Gavin Cameron added: "There has been quite a lot of information received on drugs issues in Ballingry and other parts of the Cowdenbeath area and officers are working together to achieve the right results and over recent weeks there have been quite a lot of drugs recovered."