Funds approved for developments at Fife park

It followed a funding request from Friends of Riverside Park for a contribution from the Local Community Planning budget.

Councillors approved the contribution at the Glenrothes Area Committee.

The funding will be used to install new ‘welcome to Riverside Park’ signs at the main approaches to the park.

The group will also erect a series of notice boards displaying environmental information on the flora, fauna and wildlife, including information on the river. The boards will promote the features of the park and equipment and will highlight scheduled events and activities.

A series of way marker posts will be installed, and these will indicate the direction and distance to main points of interest. This will help people plan walks, measure the distance of runs and walks, helping people to keep active and get outdoors.

The contribution will also allow the Friends of Riverside Park organisation, which was founded in 2012 to encourage volunteering and community involvement in the park, to apply for funding from Fife Environmental Trust.

This would lead to much larger improvements such as improving and upgrading pathways through the park, making it much more accessible to people, whether they have buggies, prams or wheelchairs, to get around.

JP Easton, team leader for Community, Learning and Development, said: “One of the main things is to have a large welcoming, almost like an arch type of thing, so people know they are coming to what is a destination park.

"It will link to signage in the town centre as well.”

He added: “There is a lot of potential and a real drive and enthusiasm for it happening.”

Cllr Altany Craik recommended that funds be used for toilet facilities in the park, explaining: “You can’t ask people to go to the park if there is nowhere to go.”

Cllr Jan Wincott raised concerns about the signs being damaged,” saying: “We need to try and make the signs as vandal proof as possible, because I know they’ve had some problems in the past week, with signs being destroyed. It would be a shame to put all this money in, for it to end up in flames, or shattered.”