Fife Council has refuted claims no new council homes are in the pipeline for Cowdenbeath.
Local councillor Alex Campbell called for a debate, describing the news there were no new council houses currently being built or about to be built in Cowdenbeath area as “unacceptable”.
He is calling on all councillors in the area to unite and fight for more new local authority housing to be built in the area to address what he called a “chronic shortage” of affordable rented houses.
The Kelty and Cowdenbeath councillor said the news first came to light when he was contacted by Mid-Scotland and Fife Labour MSP Alex Rowley who had obtained statistics through a freedom of information request.
He learned there are currently 280 new homes for social rent under construction in Fife and there are 580 units live in the planning process.
“He was asking how many of these were for the Cowdenbeath area To my astonishment the council responded that there are none of these for this area.”
Mr Campbell said both he and the MSP were regularly contacted by people “desperate” to get a property or by families who are stuck in houses that are too small.
“This is simply not good enough and rather than moving people from their wider families and support networks, and children from their local schools, I think it would make more sense to build houses in areas like Cowdenbeath, Kelty and Lochgelly where there are large waiting lists and real housing needs.”
The councillor now wants the issue on the table at Cowdenbeath area committee to build support and demand the area gets its share.
Community and housing services convener Judy Hamilton said, with its partners, the council delivered 2,700 affordable homes across Fife from 2012 to 2017.
Of those, 321 were in the Cowdenbeath area.
The council was committed to building another 3,500 affordable homes in the next phase from 2017 to 2022, projecting this will include yet another 250 to 300 houses in the area.
“I suspect that the numbers quoted by Alex Rowley are those currently in the planning process only, and this is merely part of the affordable housing programme which runs over a five-year term.”
