It is time to reclaim Kirkcaldy’s Town Square for our own Hogmanay celebrations

A tsunami of nostalgia washes over us come the end of the year as we recall those great house parties when first foots barrelled through the door, drinks and nibbles were in constant supply, and generations shared a special night together – but they all belong to my childhood, and my gran’s hoose in Portobello High Street some 50 years ago.

That was where you got a carefully measured first sip of alcohol - drowned in lemonade, but enough to let you think you were a grown up - and given dispensation to stay up well after the bells.

They were wonderful, warm, special nights where folk told stories and jokes,and you had to chip in with your own party piece.

Those gatherings, which followed traditions such as first foots bringing coal and shortbread, were the bridge which led to Hogmanays at the Tron, Edinburgh’s traditional Ne’er gathering place. These days you need a ticket and wristband to get anywhere near that once free space.

The city has turned Hogmanay into something for the tourists and the television audience. I think I’ve done Princes Street twice. There is nothing more miserable than forced jollity in the company of strangers who are all desperate to show you they are having a much better time.

That said it’d be nice to have the option of a local gathering, but Kirkcaldy, like so many provincial towns, has long since opted out of doing anything.

Not everyone wants to hit a bar or club - been there, done that - but beyond that, their option is pretty much Jools Holland’s Hootenanny on BBC2.

When I moved here around 1986, I recall wandering down to the Town Square where folk gathered, shared the countdown to midnight, toasted each other with a dram and then headed on to their own parties.

I don’t recall why, or when, they fizzled out, but that gap led to some brief organised events for the Millennium. They then just stopped, and, bar a brief revival around 2018, the Town Square has sat empty every Hogmanay since then.

In an interview last week, Val McDermid lamented the loss of the gathering.

“I’ll admit to being grumpy,” she said in The Herald, recalling the spontaneous Town Square gatherings.

“Now there is nothing. The Square stands empty and unwelcoming … it is as if the square has been turned into a space we no longer have a common claim over.” And she’s right.

Doing nothing is easier than sorting out all the health and safety that comes with organising an official event, but waiting on the council - or an events company - taking it on also acts as an invisible barrier to doing what we all did in the 80s and simply turning up.

Big crowds do need managed - I get that - but my memory of those gatherings was of a few hundred folk at most, there was no trouble, and not a hi-viz jacket anywhere in sight.

The Town Square sits empty almost every day of the year. It is an asset we just don’t use - it doesn’t even get a sniff of the Christmas celebrations which makes no sense given the numbers it can accommodate.

It’s too late now for it to have any buzz on Hogmanay. We have a year to rectify that, and make our own event in a space we do have a common claim over.