In The Family Way.

Not so good to see that so many of Fife's Members of the Scottish Parliament are listed amongst those declaring that they employ a family member. Surely there are Fifers who could do the jobs as well as the existing incumbents, especially those, like MSP Helen Eadie's husband Bob Eadie, who already qualify for a salary of £16K plus a year as a Fife Councillor?

"ALMOST ONE in five MSPs employ a member of their own family on their Holyrood payroll at the taxpayers’ expense. A register published for the first time yesterday lists the relatives of 25 MSPs—11 SNP, 11 Labour, two Tories, and one Liberal Democrat ... MSPs are allowed to claim up to £56,650 a year to employ staff, but the register does not give details of relative’s salaries for reasons of confidentiality ... Central Fife SNP MSP Tricia Marwick employs her son as a part-time constituency assistant. Dunfermline East Labour MSP Helen Eadie employs her husband as an office manager. Mid Scotland and Fife Tory MSP Ted Brocklebank employs his sister as his regional secretary. Dunfermline West Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson employs his wife as a researcher/assistant."

In Care.

Carnegie thinks that Fife Council needs to put more effort into looking after Fife's most vulnerable children. Clearly, at the moment they aren't doing enough compared to other councils.

"A FIFE MSP has called for action to improve life chances for children in care in the region after new figures revealed that educational attainment among such youngsters was the lowest in Scotland. Labour’s Claire Baker wants cross-party efforts and action at all levels of government to tackle the problem. For 2006-07, statistics show that in Fife there were 720 “looked after” children, 0.9% of children in the area. Over half left without any qualifications at all and only one-third received qualifications in both maths and English. There was also a large drop in attainment from the previous year."

Well done to MSP Claire Baker for highlighting the issue. Over to Fife Council.

Flying The Flags.

"ONE OF Scotland’s most iconic emblems, the Forth Road Bridge, is flying the flag for the nation on St Andrew’s Day. The Forth Road Bridge will celebrate by flying two giant saltires from the tops of its towers. The specially-produced 15-foot flags, flying over 500 feet above the Firth of Forth, should be visible for several miles on either shore. This is the first time in more than five years that flags of any kind have been flown from the bridge, which is managed by the Forth Estuary Transport Authority."

All the best for St Andrew's Day when it comes.

Mr Forgetful.

Carnegie has highlighted before how some Labour Councillors on Fife Council seem to have forgotten the fact that the Council was actually run by the Labour Party until last year's council elections when questioning decisions the council took. The latest is Dunfermline Councillor Willie Sullivan ... again.

"DUNFERMLINE COUNCILLOR Willie Sullivan has hit out at Fife Council’s decision to upgrade the Carnegie Leisure Centre instead of financing a new build. The grade B listed building will undergo a £17.2 million revamp to be completed in 2011, leaving Dunfermline without a public swimming pool for around two years. Mr Sullivan claims that alternative options were not fully investigated and that the council failed to listen to constituents ... Grant Ward, the council’s senior manager for community services, said, “The decision to refurbish rather than replace Carnegie Leisure Centre was taken by Fife Council in October 2006."

Councillor Sullivan may have forgotten that it was Labour who took the decision he is now complaining about ... but Fife voters haven't.

Fares Fair.

Fifers deserve a better deal.

"CHEAPER TRAIN travel for Fifers has been demanded in the wake of a cap on fare increases for passengers in Strathclyde. The Scottish Government announced it has secured a lower rate of increase for those using the trains in Strathclyde to align it with the rest of Scotland. North East Fife MSP Iain Smith has demanded “fairer fares” for Fife travellers, who he said were paying among the highest train fares in Scotland. While fares will increase by 6% across Scotland in January, they will only go up by 4% in Strathclyde."

I Declare ...

... the new Clackmannanshire Bridge open. Well, FM Alex Salmond did actually. But it really should have been called the Fife Bridge.

"The new £120 million Clackmannanshire Bridge over the Firth of Forth was officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond today. The crossing, designed to alleviate traffic pressure on the Kincardine Bridge, is the second largest of its type in the world. It includes an extensive network of new cycleways and footpaths and provides transport links between Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Fifem improving road safety and opening up the wider area to economic benefits. Approximately 20,000 vehicles per day are predicted to use the new bridge, with traffic on the existing Kincardine bridge reduced from approximately 30,100 vehicles per day at present to approximately 18,100 vehicles."

Name And Shame.

So, it would appear that after a series of incidents involving lorry driving over the Forth Road Bridge during high winds that the big cheeses at the Forth Estuary Transport Authority (FETA) have decided to get tough by "naming and shaming" those drivers that do it, and maybe even prosecuting them.

All very laudable to "name and shame," but Carnegie is concerned that even allowing for a bit of adverse publicity there will still be too many lorry drivers that will be prepared to take a chance, and that all is takes is for a tiny proportion of those to find themselves toppling over to cause traffic mayhem in the east of Scotland, as we have already seen.

Maybe we need something a bit more concrete?

Complaints.

Carnegie reads that a developer, who failed to be granted a planning application, has lodged a complaint about the conduct of a group of Fife Councillors involved in the planning decision.

Given Fife Council's record on planning matters, Carnegie wouldn't be surprised if something is amiss, but we will wait to see what the outcome of the complaint is. It is after all, not the first time that a developer who lost a planning application has lodged a complaint in advance of a later appeal.

"A HOTEL chain refused permission for a new hotel in St Andrews has lodged a complaint against five Fife councillors involved in the planning process. Crerar Hotels accused the four St Andrews ward councillors and chairman of the north-east Fife area committee Andrew Arbuckle of breaching the councillors’ code of conduct due to conflict of interest. The complaint was lodged with the Standards Commission last Friday, before Wednesday’s meeting of the committee where the decision to refuse planning permission for the 80-bedroom hotel beside Kinkell Braes caravan park was taken. The company, which is to appeal the decision, alleges neither Mr Arbuckle nor councillors Frances Melville, Dorothea Morrison, Bill Sangster and Robin Waterston should have taken part in the process, which included a departure hearing in October. It claims their involvement with various local bodies—among them St Andrews Links Trust and St Andrews Harbour Trust—constituted a serious conflict of interest."

Balancing The Books.

"EDUCATION CHIEFS in Fife are confident of clawing back a projected £2 million overspend in the council’s education budget by the end of the financial year. That was the message yesterday as the education and children’s services committee heard there had been no improvement in the financial situation in the past month. At their October meeting, the estimated overspend on the £304 million budget was sitting at £2.169 million—around £900,000 of which was due to staff absence levels."

Carnegie notes that Fife Council is indeed facing major cuts in education budget as previously highlighted. It would appear the issue is caused by staff absence, which is itself usually a reflection that employees are not having a fun time doing their jobs.

If Fife Council succeeds in "clawing back" the overspend then it must avoid cuts in front line services, but most importantly it needs to address the issues which are causing it to overspend on its budgets.

Good News ... Bad News.

As is so often the case these days ... a bit of good news for Fife, joined with a bit of bad news.

It is good that house prices in the Kingdom appear to be defying the downward trend in many other parts of Scotland, but as fewer people move it will make it more and more difficult and take longer for people to sell up.

"DESPITE HEAVY falls in some areas, house prices in Fife have risen in the past year—although the number of property sales has almost halved. Figures released by government body Registers of Scotland revealed that the average price of a house in Fife went up from £141,049 in July-September 2007 to £146,515 in the same period this year, an increase of 3.9%. That compared starkly with prices in the likes of Dundee, which at £124,422 was 7.5% down on last year, and Aberdeen’s £176,464, which was 4.3% down on the figure recorded 12 months ago. Edinburgh, however, showed a slight increase on the year, from £226,010 to £226,516. Fife’s latest figure was also up on the previous quarter from April to June, when the average house was said to be going for £142,136."

Priceless.

Carnegie will be buying a copy. He was a great Fifer.

"THE early life of renowned Auchtermuchty musician Sir Jimmy Shand has been immortalised with the release of a DVD commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Scottish dance band leader's birth. 'From Miner to Maestro' was launched at the Windlestrae Hotel, Kinross, on Wednesday and has been produced by Muchty Music, the Shand family company based at Auchtermuchty."

Abuse. There's No Excuse.

Carnegie is saddened to read that public service workers in Fife who spend their life trying to help us are finding themselves on the receiving end of abuse from their fellow citizens.

That's totally unacceptable and those who do it should find themselves being locked up and charged. Being drunk is no excuse and that would be brought home by a few high profile cases where people have the book thrown at them.

"FIFE'S healthcare workers are contending with shocking levels of physical and verbal abuse on a weekly, if not daily basis. And the attacks - 1302 in one year alone - are largely perpetrated by patients, the very people these workers are striving to help.Figures revealed this week show NHS Fife staff, mostly those working on the frontline, bear the brunt of the majority of abuse directed at our emergency services, accounting for a staggering 80 per cent."

Saved For The Nation.

Wouldn't it be great for a truly historical building to be returned to public use by the local community.

Here's hoping.

"A BURNTISLAND landmark is set for a £275,000 facelift, thanks to Historic Scotland. The award will allow the Station House to be renovated and space will be created for small businesses and community groups. Over the years the building has had a number of uses, including serving the world's first roll-on, roll-off ferry.However, it has been derelict for seven years and is on the buildings at risk register."

Fife's New Voice.

It came as a bit of a surprise to Carnegie, and Labour's win in the Glenrothes by-election is difficult, if not impossible, to explain, but congratulations to Lindsay Roy on becoming the new MP for Glenrothes.

Sorry.

It appears that Fife Council's planners have gotten it wrong again.

"FIFE COUNCIL have been asked to apologise to two residents after the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) ruled a complaint over a planning issue had not been properly dealt with. The SPSO, which acts as the country’s public services watchdog, also suggested that the council should review their system of dealing with errors in application plans to avoid situations in which members of the public might be misled. The SPSO’s ruling followed the complaint by two neighbours who claimed the council had not taken appropriate planning enforcement action in respect of a new house being built adjacent to their respective properties."

Oops.

Pie-Eyed.

"BUTCHERS AND bakers from all over Scotland travelled to Carnegie College, Dunfermline, yesterday to get their teeth into the World Scotch Pie Championships. The competition is now in its 10th year, with past winners going up against 70 other hopefuls. This year 46 entries were received from butchers and 31 from bakers ... The winners will be announced at an awards lunch in Dunfermline on November 27."

Carnegie awaits the winner with interest. Good to see Dunfermline being profiles on a "world" stage. Pie anyone?

Walking The Talk.

Good to read that parents are heading the message and not using their cars where possible to take their kids to school unless they have to.

"FEWER FIFE youngsters are travelling to and from school by car, according to a new survey in which a record number of pupils took part. Almost 32,000 primary and secondary students in Fife took part in the latest national Hands Up Scotland travel tally, with 145 out of 161 schools being represented. Results show that in terms of all Fife pupils (primary and secondary), car use (including park and walk) decreased by 6.5% in the space of a year, while the use of buses (including taxi) increased by 12.6%. Cycling (including scooters and skates) went up by 2.3%."

But there is still a long way to go.

Deacon BLUE.

It took Carnegie a while to get the significance of an ex-Deacon Blue drummer promoting the use of Blue bins for recycling ... get it?

"TV PRESENTER and ex Deacon Blue star Dougie Vipond is drumming up support for Fife Council’s latest drive to get more people recycling paper and cardboard. The campaign, aimed at increasing awareness of exactly what paper and cardboard materials can be recycled in blue kerbside bins, targets householders and schoolchildren. It is backed by a marketing campaign showing a range of recyclable paper and cardboard material—including telephone directories, drink cartons, magazines, cereal boxes and cards— next to a blue bin with the strap line ‘everything here can go in here.’ The initiative is part of the council’s ongoing Waste Aware Fife campaign."

Winter Blues.

Carnegie thinks the nights are fair drawing in ... but are you ready for winter as highlighted by Fife Council?

"Fife's drivers urged to prepare for the winter ... A winter driving campaign launched in the Kingdom urges drivers to act now and will run during the month of October. Fife Safety Camera Partnership have launched an intensive month long campaign to encourage drivers to plan early for the winter months."

Better safe than sorry.