The Transport Meeting scheduled for Monday 30 August in Giffordtown Hall has been cancelled. News of when our next meeting will be will follow soon.

The Transport Group have been busy laying the foundations for getting our projects up and running. Using the survey results we have been carrying out feasibility work for the improvement of key paths and cycleways in the area. We have made some real progress with permission from landowners for several key sections. More information of how we will be taking this forward will be in our next newsletter. If you can’t wait until then keep an eye on our website for details of this and our other projects.

We are always on the look out for innovative ways to change to way we travel and use cars. One site we thought we would like to share with you is www.whipcar.com . This offers an interesting option for sharing cars within the community by allowing to you hire cars from people within the community, maybe even your neighbour. Take a look and the website and see if it might suit you.

The next Transport meeting will be on Monday 30 August at 7.30pm in Giffordtown Hall.

One of the projects The Transport Group have been developing over the past few months is TripStop, and we soon hope to run a pilot scheme.  TripStop is like a bus stop, but for local people who would like a lift.  It’s an alternative to rural buses for people that don’t have the use of a car.  It works for car users and non-car users, and it provides people with the opportunity to get to know each other and to share their car journeys. Click here to see the full project profile.

To help take this idea forward the we have organise a meeting on Monday 28 June at 7.30pm in Letham Village Hall. We are writing letters to  invite people who expressed an interest in this idea during last years community survey. If you did not express an interest but now think this is an idea you would like to help shape and take forward then you are most welcome to come along. The NHTT Cafe will be residence to provide refreshement.

Collessie Gala will be taking place this coming Sunday, 20 June, from 2-4pm. On offer will be the usual great family fun, stalls and BBQ.Donations of plants, books or home baking would be most welcome.  Please drop them off with one of the Collessie Hall Committee or bring them along on the day.  All the proceeds go to the upkeep of the Collessie Hall.

The NHTT will be taking a stall this year where there will be a free tombola. Prizes will include solar toys, ‘low carb’ cupcakes and, in case you’ve missed them in the survey, some energy saving bulbs as well as other goodies. We will also have some samples of home baked bread on offer to give locals a taste of what might be on offer at a community bakery. If you have any excess produce then feel free to bring and barter.

It should be a great fun afternoon so see you there!

The Local Transport Group will be meeting on Monday 17 May in the Blue Room at Monimail Tower. Click here to see the Agenda. Please come along to find out more about our ongoing transport projects.

Working with Local Councils – a Transition Ingredient.

As some of you may be aware of, over the last few months I have been working in my academic capacity with Fife Council and Fife Community groups as well as Academic Partners to engage in a dialogue on carbon reduction and climate change.  Forging connection between local authorities and local community groups is – as you may remember – an ingredient of the Transition Towns Model.  So far we have held three seminars: one on Transport, one on Energy and one on Food. The atmosphere at these events has been vibrant and the feedback from participants is that this is proving to be an effective way to break down some of the barriers and pre-conceptions that might get in the way of the council and community interface.

Councillors and Community representative at an Open Space event in Letham Village Hall during the Nourishing Communities seminar.

To give some highlights:

At the Energy seminar in Levenmouth we had about 50 people. Tom Morton gave an excellent talk about the work going on in North Howe after which we heard about the Newburgh wind farm proposals from Neil Anderson and we heard from Fife council how they are strategically an pragmatically addressing energy efficiency.  After lunch we learned about the achievements of the Levenmouth Community Initiative – CLEAR. continue reading…

Path Developments Spring Up

Following our last newsletter article reporting survey results, including support for path development, the Transport Group has been busy taking forward this agenda.  Local consultant Crispin Hayes was contracted to develop the path network on our behalf.

We focused on 3 strategic routes:

• Collessie to Ladybank
• Collessie & Monimail to Letham
• Letham to Cupar via Fernie

Development work is still ongoing on the Collessie to Ladybank route.  We already have agreements on much of it, and await changes in land ownership in the former quarry area in order to complete negotiations.  We are hopeful that we will know the outcome for this route in the next few months.

We are really happy to announce that landowners on the Letham to Fernie route have agreed to a new path and path upgrades, which will enable walking and cycling on a direct (and safe) route from Letham Farm to St Mary’s Road end at Fernie. Our thanks to David Stewart, Abercorn Estates and Henry Hutcheson for their generosity. This path will now go forward to a ‘funding for construction’ phase.

If you are interested in path developments or other transport related issues, please feel free to join us at our monthly public meetings.

Our next meeting will be held on Monday 19 April at 7.30pm in Giffordtown Hall.

The Local Transport Group will be meeting on Monday 22 March at 7.30pm in Collessie Hall. For more information please get in touch with Louise.

One of of our current CCF funded projects is the promotion of TripshareFife which is a car share site and we aim to increase uptake within the NHTT area by up to 30%. The average car sharer saves £798.98 a year, so sharing our journeys will help us all save money, as well as reduce our carbon emissions. To find out more about tripshare and for car sharing opportunities in our area check out the website www.fifetripshare.com

The Local Transport Group will be holding their next Meeting on Monday 1 February in Giffordtown Hall at 7.30pm.  Come along and find out about our projects.

For more information please get in touch with Louise

Just a few more days to take part in our community survey which will help us target our projects to the things that matter most to you and will make the most difference in reducing climate change. Thank you to everyone who has taken part so far. If you have not yet completed a survey please click here and do it on line now.