The most recent City of Dunfermline Area Committee took place Tuesday this week and a number of interesting topics were discussed.

The Community Payback Scheme was reported on and this provided quite an interesting perspective on the work achieved locally through this. This discussed many of the recent works done, and I know there has been work in the Dunfermline South ward in recent months (both at the woods in Duloch and at Pitreavie Primary School which I helped to facilitate.) I asked a question on whether there were checks to make sure that any offender was not put in a situation that would be inappropriate due to their crime and was assured by the response that all work assigned is checked before.

After this there was reports on the Common Good funds, which I play a role as a member of the Common Good Sub-Committee and a report on Capital Investment.

The safer communities team update report provoked some interesting discussion and was also interesting reading. This was made up of 3 component parts; community safety, policing and fire and rescue service. All Councillors were highly appreciated of the hard work of each of these agencies which was reflected in the comments made. On the Community Safety report, I commented that a number of reported offences such as littering had reduced but that for the same offence the number of fixed penalty notices had increased. It was commented that mobile CCTV had helped to pick up more offenders, and obviously this needs to be welcomed. There has also been less abandoned vehicles, illegal dumping and dog fouling which is of course welcome.

The Police Scotland report also made positive reading, but there have been plenty of crimes reported. One thing I noted and asked for information on detection rates was in house break-ins which had increased over the same time period measured from the previous year. It was noted much of this was difficult to detect and that it was often opportunistic, and that people should take care to lock garages, front doors etc to ensure this does not happen.

The Fire Service also provided an interesting report, including on deliberate fires. One of the issues in Dunfermline South has been bin-burnings which was picked up on during the meeting.

We also discussed housing later in the meeting, looking at the new Housing Services Plan. I had commented about how impressed I had been at the recent Annual Tennant’s Gathering Consultation event and asked about the feedback received from that. One of the other issues picked up on was the issue of a lack of 3-4 bedroom Council houses available, which they are looking to increase by providing incentives to those who live in them but do not fully utilise all the rooms to move. I asked if there was any projections on how many they could achieve but it was not possible to provide a figure. However it is something they will be looking at both with sensitivity but with also purpose.

The next meeting will take place in January.