Alex Rowley has set out the case for a new Sport and Community Centre for Kelty.
Last week saw the first ever draft budget being brought forward and published by an Administration of Fife Council. The idea is that by publishing an actual budget you will hopefully have a better opportunity to have a say on the Council budget as you are being asked to comment on something real and this in turn will engage more people in the budget process. This also gives all the political parties and independent councillors the opportunity to get involved in the budget and bring forward their ideas and views, rather than playing silly politics trying to score cheap political points at a time when massive cuts are being brought about to budgets.
Fife Council is facing massive cuts over the next period of years and that is why it is important that the principles of cutting waste and bureaucracy are put in place alongside setting out clear priorities for what we wish to spend the Fife pound on.
One of the proposals brought forward is to establish a £12 million community Investment fund that will support the renewal and creation of community facilities to meet the needs of the towns and villages across Fife. Such an investment will also bring about much needed capital investment in local infrastructure creating jobs and opportunities at a time when these are much needed in the Fife economy. So we must get a balance between cuts and investment.
The example of investment need given in the proposal is the stalled Council halls and centre review and specifically Kelty. The budget paper sates; “A business case will be brought forward for a new community and sports centre in Kelty replacing the existing community centres, library and local office with a facility generating savings and fit for purpose in the 21st century”.
There will need to be a consultation in the village once the business case has been brought forward and the budget is approved in February.
However, as we know in Kelty, the village has doubled in size and the facilities have sadly not increased in any way and therefore it is my view that the case for such new facilities is overwhelming.
I believe such a facility would be able serve the local schools and provide a much needed sports hall for the Kelty primary school in day time and the wider community in the evenings and weekends. Once approved through the council official structures, the local community can begin to look at what kind of facilities we would want to see in the new facility, get involved in designing the new facility to meet the community needs of now and the future, and this new community and sports centre can sit alongside a new 4G full sized park as we already have over £600,000 of funding in place for this.
I saw a video of initial response to this proposal on the Kelty Today web site www.keltytoday.co.uk and I am confident that this is the general welcome that such a facility will get across the village. So, lets now move forward and begin to think about what our new centre might look like and I will ensure the business case is brought forward in the coming months.
