Town centre funding and the start of work on a £500 million development in the north of Kirkcaldy means there is plenty to be positive about, says a senior Fife councillor.
Labour’s Neil Crooks, who chairs the Kirkcaldy area committee, said he was “pretty happy” with the outcome of a new report to councillors on the town’s economic profile.
The document, covering issues such as employment and tourism, highlights work at Kingslaw which is likely to transform the town’s north-eastern fringes. The £500 million plan could herald a dramatic increase for the town’s population over the next two decades with more than 1,000 new homes, a primary school, shops and a community centre planned.
Mr Crooks also welcomed the recent announcement by contact centre firm Vericall to create more than 200 posts at the town’s John Smith Business Park.
“We’ve got to feel really positive about the opportunities now on our doorstep,” he said.
“We’re trying to be as welcome and as positive to potential investors as we possibly can be.
“The £500 million development in the north of the town has been an aspiration for us for God knows how many years and now it’s finally been unlocked. The mix of economic benefit from that huge investment is absolutely critical, and we should be celebrating the fact that we’ve broken the barriers that were there.”
The report outlined a mixed picture for the Kirkcaldy area, with the percentage of people employed in the town, 77.4%, higher than the Scottish (74.1%) and Fife (75.2%) averages.
A total of 171 jobs were created thanks to 121 Business Gateway start-ups in 2018/19, while Kirkcaldy and Mid-Fife’s tourism efforts resulted in 1.94 million day trips according to the latest available figures.
However, Kirkcaldy’s benefits claimant rate of 5.6% was far higher than the 3.8% average, most notably in Kirkcaldy East (7.3%) and Kirkcaldy Central (7.1%), and the percentage of 16 to 64-year-olds with no qualifications stood at 9.1% in the Kirkcaldy area last year – higher than the 8.2% Fife average.
The state of the town centre also remains a concern, with 27.3% of floor space vacant and 21.1% of units vacant in Kirkcaldy, compared to the Fife figures of 20.7% and 16.9% respectively.
The report noted Fife will receive £4.3 million of a £50 million Scottish Government fund to improve struggling town centres and Kirkcaldy will get the bulk of that cash, to be spent within the financial year. Funding will be used to create a safe and attractive connection between the High Street, Kirkcaldy Centre and bus station; enhance the waterfront with new pop-up style businesses, statement lighting and planting; and develop new residential and commercial opportunities around the town centre and in the Merchants’ Quarter.
