Contract awarded for town work

Work to regenerate Leven’s declining town centre has moved on a step.

A £700,000 contract for part of the year-long upgrade has been awarded to Motherwell company, Wills Bros Civil Engineering Ltd. The entire project will eventually see better links created between the High Street, Sainsbury’s and the retail park and is expected to attract more people to the town.

Councillors gave it the go-ahead after the public identified priorities during a charrette in 2013.

Fife Council said the works would deliver “large-scale transformational change” at the Shorehead and the approaches to it. The contract awarded will help realise the aims of the Leven Civic Hub project.

It will see the public car park turned into a flexible, multipurpose, pedestrian-friendly space capable of hosting civic events. The road will be resurfaced and pavements excavated and re-laid in block paving.

New street furniture, including benches, bollards, bins and cycle racks, will be installed and speed ramps put in.

The aim is to make the Shorehead a welcoming point of arrival and, long term, it is hoped it will be an arrival point for passengers on the Levenmouth rail link.

The area has suffered from a lack of investment compared to other town centres, notably Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, and it is hoped work will increase confidence among businesses.