Question mark over planned children’s day

A NOT-for-profit development organisation that was set up to realise “unmet” i mprovement opportunities i n Cupar town centre, is continuing to plan for the future while being “realistic” about the likely practical and financial impact of coronavirus in coming years.

Cupar Development Trust (CDT) is continuing to work on the town’s “well advanced” arrival and interpretive signage.

“Designs are progressing well, including a new digital map of Cupar,” said CDT member Bill Pagan.

“The signage, i n six places in the town, will include QR Codes which can be scanned to link to additional i nformation selected by the visitor.

“CDT will work with other organisations to develop trails catering to various interests, and the entire project has taken into account the needs of the less mobile and the visually impaired.”

However, speaking after the trust’s second meeting of 2020 – held remotely – Mr Pagan said there was a question mark over whether a children’s day and concert, funded by Fife Cultural Trust and celebrating the old Scots Language i n medieval Cupar, would be able to go ahead in September due to uncertainties over coronavirus.

The event has also been organised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Duncan Institute, where display cases are due to be installed to display facsimiles of works by two of Cupar’s 16th Century sons who wrote in Old Scots – the playwright Sir David Lindsay and his historian cousin Robert Lindsay.

Mr Pagan said the virus has provided impetus to update CDT’s presence on social media and its website is being updated, with welcome guidance from CuparNow.

Detailed plans for the ambitious Inner Court and Gap Site project, supported by Fife Council and led by Kingdom Housing, are also continuing to be discussed by Fife Council officials.

The i deas for I nner Court were first displayed publicly during a 2016 charrette, which was well attended and supported by local people.

SPENCER Mason was 12 when he realised he was experiencing l i fe differently to anyone else.

Now 22, the student from Broughty Ferry has just published his first book, Other Tongues, detailing his journey with schizoaffective disorder.

This is a condition where symptoms of both psychotic and mood disorders are present together. For Spencer, the past 10 years have been spent trying to navigate his struggle with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“It started developing when I was about 12,” he said. “It sent everything rocketing for pretty much the entire past 10 years.

“It’s having to live like a normal human being when you don’t experience anything a normal human being experiences.

“It’s people not realising how much of a struggle every day is and how much is dictated in the moment about my ability to do things.”

Spencer, who is studying songwriting at BIMM Manchester, said the development of the disorder was both “gradual and sudden”.

He said:“It took a while for me to realise the voices I heard were perhaps in my head and they weren’t a radio trapped in the wall that I couldn’t get to. Over the coming months and years, it became more obvious these were sensory hallucinations.”

Spencer’s book, which