My Cowdenbeath CIC have submitted their response to a vital plan for the area’s transport developments over the next decade, saying the Council plan “lacks ambition and doesn’t address the needs of local people”.
Fife Council is consulting on the Draft Area Transport Plan 2025-35, with locals invited to have their say on a number of transport related action plans for the town and surrounding villages in the area.
The consultation closes on September 28th and includes suggestions to add traffic lights at the A92 junction into the town, remove bus lay-by’s in the High Street and create a right-turn lane at the busy High Street junction into Stenhouse Street.
The development group has shared its response to the plan, which you can read here, and detailed a number of its own ideas and suggestions, which were sourced from community insights built through a resident survey in 2023/24 with more than 1,100 responses.
John Scott, a Director at My Cowdenbeath said:
“Although we support several of the actions, the plan overall seems to lack ambition and doesn’t really address many of the challenges local people face today, and which will likely get worse in the next decade. We want to see a better reflection of local ideas and greater transparency on how these actions have been selected. Some of the proposals will make congestion worse in our town centre in our view, which we cannot support. It feels like the bare minimum from a local authority which has its attention elsewhere. We should be aiming higher for places like Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly and Benarty.”
You can read the group’s full response here.
My Cowdenbeath is seeking more action to tackle problem parking in the town, especially during stock car meets, with several hotspots seeing dangerously parked vehicles at weekends making getting around safely in the town for local residents difficult. One solution might be to increase parking capacity and improve enforcement, although Council officers have said they want Police Scotland support during stock car meets due to previous incidents.
They highlight ideas like creating a new permanent car park in Chapel St, and have rejected the Council’s proposal to remove bus lay-by’s in the High Street and Broad Street. The group fear removing bus lay-bys would have the effect of stopping buses ‘in-line’ with traffic flow, so they are not delayed pulling out from the bus stop and therefore prioritising public transport through the town centre, causing greater delays through the High Street.
John added, “With never-ending roadworks and 7 pedestrian crossings within half a mile, we already have a real problem with traffic flow through the High Street. It has a big effect on drivers, but it also puts people off coming to spend their money in the town centre. They’d rather travel a longer distance where they can park right at the door without any delay. These proposals mean traffic flow would be affected for every bus at every stop. Somehow we just dont seem to have the balance right.”
There are also proposals to add more ‘active travel’ routes for safer cycling and walking between Cowdenbeath and Mossmorran, and the installation of more EV charging points in each of the existing car parks in the town.
There was criticism though as the Council failed to include the 5 local Roman Catholic schools in their plan for the Cowdenbeath Area, with only the non-denomination schools Travel Plans mentioned, which officers have noted and offered an apology.
The public has until September 28th to comment on the draft plan with officers expected to seek formal adoption of the plan later in the year.
The draft plan can be downloaded by clicking on the image below.
My Cowdenbeath CIC 