Glenrothes residents petition for more parking spaces costing almost £40,000

Glenrothes Area Committee councillors agreed to address parking issues after 35 homeowners and residents signed a petition. It stated that parking in the neighbourhood was insufficient and created problems.

“The current provision is 22 spaces for 28 households. We petition to have at least one space per household,” it said.

In response, Fife Council’s housing services proposed using nearly £40,000 from the Glenrothes area housing budget to create 11 new parking spaces – including two disabled bays. In total, there are 14 council tenants in the area, and the service said it would support the investment “to alleviate parking issues in this area”.

“It’s about weighing up [our options] and meeting residents halfway,” Charlotte Stitchell, Glenrothes area housing manager, told the committee. “We have got some council tenants in the area although they’re not in the majority, but at least we’re providing some parking bays. We thought rather than doing nothing, this proposal was a compromise and some of our tenants would benefit as well.”

The investment was approved, but councillors did have concerns about using money from the housing budget and about causing an influx of similar requests which would be hard to fund.

“As an area committee, we’ve previously spoken about the need for extra parking because Glenrothes was not built with cars in mind,” Councillor Daniel Wilson (SNP for Glenrothes Central and Thornton) said.

“I do share concerns about everyone coming forward now and saying ‘they’ve got parking now so why can’t we?’ -ut on the whole I’m inclined to support this because there’s not enough parking in that area.”

Councillors had concerns about using the money for a project that would only benefit a maximum of 14 council tenants.

Councillor Altany Craik (Labour for Glenrothes West and Kinglassie) said: “It doesn’t seem like the best use of HRA funds. I think if you were to ask rent payers if they thought this is the best use of our HRA, we might get a different answer.”

The committee unanimously agreed to invest the money. Councillor Peter Gulline (Conservative for Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch) concluded: “Both [council tenants and homeowners] are going to benefit from this. All over Glenrothes there is this issue with parking and I'm actually quite pleased to see one area getting addressed. I’ve got plenty more that could certainly be brought up.”