By Leeza Clark

A CAMPAIGN has been launched in Kinghorn to try and ensure a piece of land is retained for local people.

Members of the community are being asked to support an application to register interest in buying the land at Kinghorn Loch under the community right-to-buy scheme.

The land has been well used as a local recreational area for hundreds of years and is currently up for sale.

Under the new land reform legislation, local communities are being empowered to register significant pieces of land and can have first option to buy when they come up for sale.

Earlier this week, another Fife community became one of the first in Scotland to win approval from the Scottish Executive to buy land which would be used as a community woodland area.

Crossgates Community Woodland has now to raise the £175,000 needed to buy The Taft, a 15-hectare former mining site in the heart of the village.

As was the case in Crossgates, in order to register the land a community group must first be set up. The Kinghorn Community Land Association has now been formed.

Chairman Mick McMillan said, “Over the last year, a lot of people have worked hard to establish this organisation and it is now fully incorporated.”

To take the plans forward, the community has to collect as many signatures as possible from people on the electoral roll in Kinghorn.

These voters are all entitled to become members of the association and a certain number must be achieved before the application can be accepted by the Scottish Executive.

“We would like the area by the loch to be owned and run by the local community,” said Mr McMillan. “It would be fantastic if the land could be managed in a way which was beneficial to wildlife, the wider environment and all of the people who use the area responsibly at present.

“This outstanding area of natural beauty has been an asset to Kinghorn’s generations in the past and the community has shown its determination to preserve it for those of the future.”

People can collect membership forms from Kinghorn Community Centre and KCLA would welcome help in collecting names.

Local MSP Marilyn Livingstone has been very supportive of the group and the campaign. “I am really pleased that the group has been formed and it is really good to see them taking such an interest in this site,” she said.

“These people are giving up their own time to ensure the environment they live in is the very best that it can be, and it is a pleasure to support them. They are not just protecting the area for themselves, but for future generations,” she added.

Last year plans for the site caused a storm of protest as local people feared building three residential properties there would ruin the rural location.

Fife Council’s planning department received 50 letters of objection to the proposed development at Lochside Stables in Burntisland Road, which is contrary to the development plan.

Objectors asked that the planning application be turned down as it would encroach on the boundaries of a viable wildlife site and would be a threat to the environment.

Almost a century ago, there was uproar when landowners tried to stop local residents using the land. According to an old book, “To debar the public from their ancient privilege of access to its margin was reserved for the year of grace 1906.

“This regrettable action met with strong official and public opposition, and the burghers of Kinghorn resolutely removed the barriers between them and their birthright.”

A local newspaper report from 1905 documented the “consternation and indignation” among the community when an access route to the loch was filled with barbed wire.

The company which owned the land had objected to the unrestricted access to this site along the shore of the loch.

As villagers tore down the barricade, the company continued to reinstate it and then put up a gate and a notice, informing the community the area was private property.

Not content with holding meetings to ask the council to take steps to assert their right to use the land, around 200 people went to the site and—in front of police—tore down the barrier which they carried home, singing Rule Britannia as they went.