By Cheryl Wood

A FIGHT to save its library has led to a north-east Fife village being given control over a trust set up to help the poor and support schoolchildren.

When Colinsburgh’s Galloway Library was threatened with closure, questions were raised about Fife Council’s ability to axe a facility bequeathed to the community “for all time.”

The new council administration reversed the unpopular decision in August, and now, with the library’s future assured, moves are being made to reconstitute the 108-year-old trust so that local people once more hold the purse strings.

Another constitutional change likely to be made is the revision of the £2 grants that are available for the “deserving poor.”

The Galloway Trust was set up in 1899 by Thomas Carstairs Galloway who bequeathed a library and reading room to the village.

As well as paying for the construction of the library—now owned by the local authority—he stipulated his estate was to be used to provide bursaries for schoolchildren and grants for the deserving poor of Colinsburgh.

Three local people were appointed trustees, but when they died no one seems to have taken their place and its administration fell to the district council and then Fife Council.

Now, however, it is proposed to form a new trust comprising of the three councillors who represent Colinsburgh and three people from the community.

A report will go before the north east Fife area committee on Wednesday seeking support for the reconstitution, which will then require approval from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.

It explains, “The proposed closure of Colinsburgh library earlier this year brought the issue of the trusteeship into sharp focus, and officials from the library service and law and administration have been meeting with members of the community to discuss a way forward.”

It adds, “The opportunity might also be taken to amend some of the trust purposes which are not fit for modern purpose.

“Whilst the library and bursary provisions seem to be workable, phrases such as ‘deserving poor’ in respect of the poor relief part of the trust seem hardly appropriate in this modern day and age, and it may be that extra provision to be more than a sum of £2 might be appropriate.”

The trust has almost £9500 for charitable purposes and £24,000 for the library.

Danny McAllister, former chairman of Colinsburgh and Kilconquhar Community Council, said the reconstitution would give the community much greater control of its cash.

“We are behind this 100%,” he said.

“When Galloway set the trust up over 100 years ago he gave it to local worthies to look after, but that seems to have been lost over the years.

“When the library was getting put up for closure all these things reared their heads—we went through the documentation and found out what Galloway had intended.”

Bursaries available to school- children are limited, however, and Mr McAllister added, “Very few people in this area would be described as deserving poor now.”

Since it was confirmed the library would remain, far greater use had been made of the reading room with new Scrabble, craft and reading groups set up.

Three other libraries and a museum were set to be scrapped by Fife Council—the libraries in East Wemyss, Thornton and Pitteuchar, in Glenrothes, and the John McDouall Stuart Museum in Dysart

However, they are all now to remain open.