Fife roads programme improved after Cowdenbeath delays

Back in June, the convener of the Cowdenbeath Area Committee, councillor Alex Campbell, slammed “unacceptable” delays and postponements of planned works.

He wrote to service chief John Mitchell demanding answers as he said he believed the service as not performing as they would wish it to.

A report which came back to the area committee this week admitted that there had been a “lack of oversight and coordination” by the service on an area basis.

Mr Mitchell told councillors: “In that year, it all seemed to have impacted on the Cowdenbeath area in particular.

“It should have been escalated and we have highlighted that and we will look at that and include that in improvement plans.”

He said measures have been introduced to create a better integrated approach across the service.

Service manager Ross Tulloch told councillors that issues which had led to the delays included the recruitment of specialist staff, retirals, network conflicts and the limited number of contractors.

“The fundamental issue is a lack of coordination and oversite of service level where we tend to review Fife wide basically rather than on an area basis,” he said.

“We have introduced improvements through a works programme board where we look at works programme network conflicts so we accept failings in management there and we have put measures in place to tackle them.

“Progress for 2026/27 is good and we are on track for delivering the majority of schemes. With regard to the previous financial year, we would acknowledge there were a number of work streams with delivery shortfalls that fell particularly in the Cowdenbeath area in 2025/26.”

Cllr Campbell was pleased that the “failings” in the service had been accepted.

“We have mentioned retiring staff and staff moving on and we get that but the question is what are you doing about that going forward?” he added.

“In most of the report that is a big issue. A project is at the design stage and there is no designer to do it.

“What future planning are we doing to replace key members of the team that ae going to be moving on?”

Mr Mitchell said work was ongoing.

“We have struggled to bring in senior professional officers – the private sector is offering exceptional salaries in comparison to where local authorities are,” he explained.

“We have brought in a number of graduates and technicians this summer. We are trying to grow our own which Fife has been renowned for in the past.

“We are looing to build that up again and keep that stream of young people coming in.”