A BALLINGRY resident has hit out at the lack of action over what councillors described as a “serious problem” more than a year ago.

At a Cowdenbeath Area Committee meeting in October 2020, councillors unanimously agreed that a pavement which abruptly stops, forcing people to cross a busy road, was a serious hazard and must be rectified.

The road, at the new housing at Kirkland Farm, leads towards Benarty Primary School and is frequented by children, all of whom must cross a blind bend to get across due to the pavement not leading anywhere.

Despite the urgency at the meeting, no action has been taken with residents demanding to know why.

Tom Kinnaird, who initially raised the issue at the meeting, contacted the Times to say he has been blocked from raising the query at recent meetings, with councillors saying the fact it has been asked before is the reason.

He said: “A year on from when the local community raised this issue to our local Councillors on the Cowdenbeath Area Committee and nothing has been done.

“The councillors were unanimous in their verdict that this was a serious problem which needed to be addressed urgently, preferably before the end of the October holidays in 2020, yet here we are at the end of the 2021 October holidays and there has been no progress.

“It's a sad state of affairs when urgent matters such as this can't be highlighted and then dealt with by those in charge of our roads and pavements.

“This is a route to school for young children. The pavement was a condition of the planning permission for the new housing scheme, but without Fife Council joining it onto the rest of the pavement network on the land they own and control, you have to ask, what was the point?

“What we are left with is a dangerous route where the children have to cross at a blind bend, where the traffic is usually quite fast moving, even though it's a 30mph limit there.

“It's only a matter of time before there is a tragic fatality and I for one feel this issue must be dealt with as a top priority before anything like that happens,” Tom said.

At the time of writing, none of the four councillors for Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty - Linda Erskine, Rosemary Liewald, Mary Lockhart and Lea McLelland - had responded to requests for comment.