THE Fife Council budget was agreed on Thursday and there has been a lot of debate on various aspects of it.

However, it has been a long and difficult path as councillors have faced trying to plug a lot of black holes.

The one big boost was the pledge from the Scottish Government to fund the nursery hours extension up to over 1,100 hours which will see a lot of new staff recruited.

That is a part of the national project to help families get the right start educationally for their children.

There was a welcome for that in the council chamber at Fife House on Thursday, but there were other concerns tabled.

There is the 4.8 rise in council tax, that was agreed, in a bid to try and bridge the gaps in the financial package and while that is a significant rise on last year, it is has been needed to save the local authority from going deeply into the red.

There were concerns aired in the council chamber about issues that have been coming up regularly such as possible problems for the Fife Education a service and the condition of the roads in the county.

Local councillors are regularly questioned at their surgeries about the pothole problems experienced by motorists in the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area.

The continued gap in the budget of around £6m is bound to have an impact on the condition of roads and the Cowdenbeath Area Committee will be discussing that as the 2020-2021 financial year gets underway.

The eight local councillors, who were told at their January meeting that their area budget was frozen until April, will also be wondering how they are going to fare in the new financial year as the restrictions come into force in various departments.

Things such as Café Inc, which proved so successful in the past 12 months during the school holidays, to ensure that families were able to get a square meal, will be put on the back burner and that will be a worry for them.

However, the purse strings are tight and the Area Committee will be hoping it can guide the package for Cowden-Gelly through what will be choppy waters.