Published Date: Feb 9th, 2021
New plans have been set out for capital spending over the next 10 years as part of the 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:
- £5.45m towards addressing flooding issues across Fife.
- Spending on roads to be accelerated with an extra £2m brought forward for each of the next two years
- Additional funding to be committed to key community projects with 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.
Co-Leaders Councillors David Alexander and David Ross commented, “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.
“Capital funding is tight, but we have the opportunity to put additional investment into some key projects over the next couple of years.
“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.
“we also have the opportunity to spend another £5.65m on one off priorities over the next two years. 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.
“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, 2021. Decisions on council tax and rent will be made on February 25, 2021.