The Fife Liberal Democrats recently wrote to the Labour Council leader David Ross to ask for various key positive changes to be made across Fife. This included a number that will impact Dunfermline. Fife Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and Convener of the Dunfermline Area Committee, Councillor James Calder, and Dunfermline Central Councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder have both reacted positively to this.

Councillor James Calder has said,

With the Labour Administration being a minority Administration, this means that there will inevitably be a more collaborative approach to the running of the Council as we will need to see cross-party working taking place.

We got in touch with Labour to ask them to consider looking into a number of policy areas, and a number of these will have a real positive impact on Dunfermline.

We welcome the commitment to work with us on the road repairs that are badly needed.

I am also particularly pleased that they recognise the need to ensure that the general public are not disadvantaged by disputes between the Council and private landowners over council-run grounds maintenance arrangements that have existed over a number of years. I know in areas like Pitcorthie and some parts of Abbeyview in Dunfermline South this has been a long-running concern, and I am committed to ensuring that the local communities in these areas are not negatively impacted by this.

It is also welcome that the Administration are open to areas such as Dunfermline being able to review and change local parking arrangements to help local businesses.

Councillor Boubaker-Calder welcomes this, saying

I am pleased the Liberal Democrat group have raised these issues with the Labour Administration and that we can hopefully see a positive change moving forward locally.

So many people have raised the state of the roads in Dunfermline to me, so I will push for as much investment to be made locally as possible to deal with this.

I also believe that devolving parking powers to Dunfermline’s Councillors could also make a positive impact. I am keen to look into ideas such as what we see in Perth where people can park for a short period of time for free, if they just need to nip into shops. It is important we act now if we want to save our city centre.