Fife Council: Glenrothes councillors approve £95k community recovery investment

Members of the Glenrothes Area Committee approved the recovery spending on Wednesday afternoon leaving a balance of nearly £979,910 for future projects.

Last August, the Fife Cabinet Committee agreed to allocate £10 million of revenue balances as a community recovery fund. The money was divided between area budgets, and Glenrothes received £1.303 million for recovery spending.

On Wednesday, the area committee agreed to invest in five separate projects.

Gingerbread Minis – an initiative for young children and families in Glenrothes – will receive £16,562 from the recovery fund. The project will deliver a variety of classes and activities throughout the week that families would ordinarily be unable to afford or have the confidence to attend.

“These activities will promote and seek to improve parenting skills, confidence and relationship building along with child development,” a committee report said. “This will help ensure that children who benefit from the project will enter nursery with a wide range of developmental opportunities equal to their peers.”

The Milton of Balgonie play area will receive £20,000 to improve current play facilities for the benefit of residents and visitors to the area.

“The play area is in the main open space within the village and is the only play area there,” a committee report said. “The project was highlighted following a recent annual inspection as now nearing the end of its life and in need of refurbishment. The main unit within the play area has already been removed due to safety issues.”

The Fife Big Hoose Hub will receive £18,730 to hire a Glenrothes Coordinator to oversee day-to-day activities in the region. The Big Hoose project launched in April 2022 when the Cottage Family Centre signed a deal with Amazon – which has a vast fulfilment centre off the M90 in Dunfermline – to distribute surplus goods to people in poverty. It has now expanded to work with a host of frontline organisations from Fife Gingerbread and Fife Women’s Aid, to foodbanks and pantries, as well as social work, health visitors, schools, nurseries, housing officers, and community teams to create the biggest project in the Kingdom – one that has now launched elsewhere in Scotland.

The Glenrothes Against Poverty Partnership will receive £14,940 for its LifeSkills Glenrothes project which will “enable participants to learn skills and gain confidence around everyday household tasks, such as cooking and home repairs and DIY.”

“Specifically, participation will encourage the development of skills and knowledge: cooking and food safety, minimising food waste and healthy eating within a budget; household skills such as re-wiring a plug, hanging a shelf, hanging wallpaper, painting etc. Participants will be equipped with tools and devices required to carry out these tasks independently at home,” the report said.

Finally, the Cadham Neighbourhood Centre Access will receive £25,000 to upgrade the entry and exit to the centre and install a wheelchair accessible door.

All of the projects meet the criteria for community recovery spending, according to the committee report.

“The establishment of these projects will assist in developing a response to the cost-of-living crisis and post Covid recovery for individuals, families and communities across the Glenrothes Area,” the report said. “Learning gained from these projects will be used to influence and direct future service delivery across the area.”