Council election: Spotlight on West Fife and coastal villages.

Regeneration is most certainly the name of the game for the West Fife and Coastal Villages ward.

The small villages and towns which make up the sprawling western gateway to the kingdom are still trying to pick themselves up after the closure of Longannet Power Station.

When Scottish Power closed the massive coal-fired power station little over a year ago it came at the price of 230 direct jobs and an estimated 1,000 indirect jobs.

And at a cost of £50 million a year to the local economy.

A further blow came when the Scottish Government failed to finance the £9 million the task force was relying upon to mitigate the impact.

Only now, a year on, are the green shoots of regeneration starting to emerge, with funding for charrettes and for community groups in an attempt to breathe new life into the area.

Connected to the power station’s demise is the need for new business units, especially for smaller enterprises and start up businesses.

There are also calls for improved public transport connections from the villages into Fife and also to other areas in the central belt.

Efforts are being made to expand the Stirling Alloa Kincardine rail link – which had only carried freight to Longannet – for both passenger and freight.

Back in 2012 the ward, with an electorate of 14,508, returned two Labour, one SNP and one Independent councillor. But Labour’s Alice Callaghan and popular independent Willie Ferguson are not seeking re-election this time around.

Picture: Steven Brown. Closed – Longannet Power Station.