Centenarians and couples celebrating special wedding anniversaries are missing out on council presentations due to information-sharing legislation.
It is traditional for local authorities to send politicians to hand over flowers and sometimes gifts to mark 100th birthdays and diamond wedding anniversaries.
But The Courier has learned that National Records of Scotland has stopped informing councils of upcoming dates.
In a letter to the Fife Council provost’s office, Helen Bunyan, a team leader at the National Records of Scotland Local Organisation Unit (LOU), wrote: ”The LOU will no longer provide your office with details of special birthday or wedding anniversary celebrations notified to us by a third party.
”The reason for this instruction is that by providing this information we are in breach of the Data Protection Act.”
Irvine and Louise Rae, of Tayport, celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary on September 6 but the council was unaware and they only received a bouquet after Councillor Tim Brett stepped in.
He said: ”This couple from my ward were overlooked because the council couldn’t get in touch. I’ve discovered that the council has run into difficulty because it’s no longer getting the information.
”I just think it’s a great shame that some are missing out and I’m hoping common sense might come into this somewhere along the line.”
Irvine Rae (88) said it is a ”great pity” that the council is no longer informed of upcoming dates.
”It annoyed us a bit that it was late,” he admitted. ”You’d think the council would be told. Sixty years is a long time.”
Louise Rae (84) added: ”We thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. They gave us lovely flowers. It was absolutely great.
”It should have been a fortnight ago but we were lucky that it happened at all. It’s sad that people are missing out.”
Mr Brett has raised the issue with senior managers at Fife Council.