Demolition of centre agreed

ONE of Fife’s most dilapidated shopping centres is to be demolished as part of ambitious plans to transform the site.

Fife Council has been granted permission to compulsory purchase the Glenwood Centre in the west of Glenrothes, which has fallen into disrepair and become blighted by crime and antisocial behaviour.

Councillors agreed £1.5 million should be spent buying out the 37 businesses operating in the centre, as well as 11 flats still in private ownership above it.

The move has been hailed a “significant milestone” in the bid to breathe new life into the area.

The council’s Glenrothes community manager Norman Laird said many of the shops were derelict and vacant and the housing service had stopped allocating properties there to tenants due to poor living conditions.

“There has been a community effort to maintain the area but it’s our opinion it’s no longer viable and is a major blight on the area,” he said.

“We had a major consultation process with a charrette and the conclusion of that was the viability of t he centre was unsustainable and demolition would be the only way forward.”

Mr Laird said development plans would be drawn up during the compulsory purchase process, with the aim of securing a “comprehensive development that would be t ransformational for the area”.

He said all business owners were aware of the plan and some had signalled an intention to return to the area once the regeneration was complete.

EMERGENCY services helped rescue a man near Queen’s Bridge in Perth last night.

Police and firefighters were called to the scene amid concerns for his safety when he was spotted on the wrong side of the bridge along the flood wall.

The man was seen close to the water on a city stretch of the River Tay next to the bridge shortly before 9pm.

The alarm was raised by a passer-by and police and fire crews responded rapidly.

A PENSIONERS’ campaigner has branded the current care crisis in Dundee as “the stuff of nightmares”.

The Tele reported at the weekend that elderly and disabled clients of private healthcare company Allied Healthcare had been left without carers visiting them in their home for up to 16 hours.

In some instances clients had been left soaked in urine, cold and hungry and bed-bound.

An anonymous whistleblower said they were aware of at least 30 elderly and vulnerable Allied Healthcare service users who had been left in these circumstances.

Dorothy McHugh, secretary of Dundee Pensioners Forum, said she was alarmed to learn about the issues.

And the campaigner said the people affected “deserve better”.

She said: “This is the stuff of nightmares and a direct consequence of outsourcing care for vulnerable older people.

“I cannot imagine the distress this will have caused.”

Dorothy added: “Clearly there