Fifers have been promised that more money is to be ploughed into flood defences and filling potholes over the next decade after spending priorities were reviewed.
New plans have been set out for capital spending over the next 10 years as part of Fife Council’s biennial review.
As well as planned expenditure on new schools, care homes, community facilities, environment and infrastructure, the council plans to commit additional funding to five key projects.
Those include £5.45million towards addressing flooding issues across Fife, while spending on roads is to be accelerated with an extra £2million brought forward for each of the next two years.
Additional funding will also be committed to the required upgrading of the Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland, the new community facility for Abbeyview in Dunfermline, and the Inverkeithing Community Hub at the Wing – all of which are expected to see more money allocated when decisions are taken next month.
In a statement, Fife Council co-leaders Councillors David Alexander and David Ross acknowledged that capital funding remains “tight”, but the opportunity exists to put additional investment into areas where it is needed most.
“The council already has an ambitious capital programme to maintain and improve our assets, including new schools to support Fife’s growing population, new care homes and council housing,” they said.
“We have all seen the increasing impact of flooding in many of our communities over the past few months.
“Although we rely on the Scottish Government for the bulk of funding to address flooding, we are proposing to commit an additional £5.45m to tackle this problem.
“We are also determined to maintain and improve Fife’s roads and we propose to accelerate our roads programme by increasing expenditure on roads by £2m in each of the next two years.
“As well as these major projects we will also be investing in some of our most important community facilities.
“It hasn’t been possible to re-open the Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland during the pandemic because a major upgrade is needed to its facilities and this investment of £1m will let us take forward necessary upgrades to the Beacon.
“We want to demonstrate our commitment to maintaining the Community Wing in Inverkeithing once the secondary school moves, with additional funding of £1m for improvements and we will also be making additional funding available for the new community hub already planned for Abbeyview so that we can provide a facility that meets the needs of the community.”
The council co-leaders have also earmarked a further £5.65m to spend on one-off priorities over the next two years – details of which are expected to emerge as the budget-setting process continues.
“Improving our infrastructure for the benefit of our residents and visitors is a key priority for us and we will invest this money where it’s needed most,” they concluded.
“These are our initial proposals but we hope it may still be possible to identify funding for some further new projects but this is partly reliant on further funding becoming available through the Scottish Government’s budget.”
The council will make final budget decisions on March 11, while all-important decisions on council tax and rent will be made prior to that on February 25.
