A COMMUNITY group’s ambitions to make their part of Lumphinnans look even better is almost complete.
The Robert Smith Court Community Group has continued to go from strength-to-strength - and they have powered on with the completion of further improvements.
The RSCCG secured significant grant funding from the Four Winds Trust, the National Lottery Community Fund and from the Fife Voluntary Action Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund, which has helped them transform wasteland near Lumphinnans Bowling Club.
Two years ago the community activists created a community garden and with this new funding they have made further improvements to their existing facilities.
They have also made use of other communal wasteland in the area to create a community wild garden and a kids’ grassed play area.
“We have just put the last touches to these areas to make them usable for the community,” said RSCCG’s Mark Davies.
“We now have some fantastic safe and varied outdoor spaces for our residents to use. Most residents do not have private gardens, and many live in multi-occupancy blocks.
“So these new outdoor recreation spaces will be great for the wellbeing of our community..
“We are so proud of what we have achieved since our community group was formed nearly four years ago.
“We have created a sustainable community, we have lifted the area and made it the pride of Lumphinnans village. The project has created a sense of pride and facilitated numerous friendships and a real sense of community. Robert Smith Court truly is a great and safe place to live in”.
Robert Smith Court was built over 20 years ago, and after a good start, the estate of more than 50 homes, which has mixed ownership of private and tenanted homes, started to go downhill.
This was picked up by local councillor, Mary Lockhart, who said: "I remember leafleting in Robert Smith Court nearly six years ago.
“It was sad to see what looked like a pleasant housing complex looking so down at the heel.
“Three very thin young men were huddled behind a car park fence smoking something very aromatic, and there was litter everywhere, blowing against walls and fences.
“I stood in dogs’ dirt by the car park, and again in the somewhat dispiriting courtyard. Everywhere there was a sense of depression. Nobody was rude to me, but I felt like an intruder."
The Labour councillor added: “Six years on, Robert Smith Court is transformed. And the transformation is entirely due to the initiatives of the residents and tenants, who have come together and made themselves a community with a purpose.
“They have made a community garden, repaired fences, planted trees and flowers, befriended those isolated, influenced lifestyles, and taken control of their area to regenerate and make it thrive.
“On recent visits, I have felt the difference; welcoming, full of ideas, residents who care about their environment and with the confidence to believe that they can achieve for themselves all their common aspirations.
"This is community at its empowered best."
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