A KIRKCALDY councillor has criticised the speed with which Fife’s community planning partners dealt with the recent avian flu incident in the East Neuk.

Fear gripped many parts of the region after a swan infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu was found at Cellardyke harbour in April, with some people feeling that authorities could have contained the situation more quickly.

But Fife Council has hit back, stressing its community planning partners were in the thick of the action from day one.

Dunnikier representative Ann Watters raised the point before fellow councillors at last week’s full council meeting in Glenrothes and challenged community safety chairman Andrew Keddie on what she felt was too long a delay between the bird’s death and action being taken.

Mrs Watters told councillors, “I was appalled at the lack of speed with which we dealt with the swan in Cellardyke.

“I feel there was a bit of a delay and I would ask if we have now got sufficiently speedy plans in place if such a thing happens again?

“We don’t want to be in a situation where we are caught napping.”

However, Councillor Keddie described the efforts of those involved as “first class,” while Provost John Simpson also defended the work done to contain the crisis.

“We met with some of the members of staff at the time and we were delighted with the way things were handled,” Mr Simpson said. “I thought our staff were excellent and luckily the incident did not come to much in the end.”

A crisis team was set up with checkpoints placed around the village, which were initially manned by Fife Police, to check on any transport of birds.

The team also helped field the vast amount of media requests as the harbour village became worldwide news, while Fife Council also wrote twice to residents directly affected with progress reports.

“Everyone has lessons to learn from this incident,” said Fife Council trading standards team leader Geoff Bates. “It’s very likely avian flu will return.”

Following the discovery in Cellardyke, a draft Fife Council contingency plan for a further avian flu outbreak is under review.