Comment: One plan, one direction key to Kirkcaldy town centre future

But we also need action.

Words on paper provide the framework but we need the inspiration, the leadership, the creativity and the commitment of a wide network of groups and individuals to turn them into actions with clearly defined goals, within an equally structured timescale.

Previous blueprints and strategies have promised much, bit delivered little – remember the plan to build piers out from the Esplanade with shops at the end of each?

But so much has changed ass a result of the doors opening and more people coming on board.

Sadness at closure of Fife heritage centre which was 25 years in the...

The acceptance that the council cannot alone deliver everything was key. In the past it appeared to have a piecemeal approach – a development here, a project there – but, we now have a co-ordinated focus on the town centre as a whole, and we have so many voices being heard that, in many ways Kirkcaldy is leading the way.

The ‘to do’ list remains long and challenging, and funding is limited, but there is also a commitment to creating a town centre that is fit for the future; one that may be very different from its past steeped in retail, but which chimes with how we shop, and what e want from our High Street.

A place to live as well as visit.

It remains a work in progress, but one heading in the right direction.