Gold for villages and towns in Beautiful Fife Awards 2019

Local communities have been celebrating after they struck gold in the 2019 Beautiful Fife Awards.

Members of Floral Action Burntisland who are delighted with the accolades won in the Beautiful Fife awards. Pic: Fife Photo Agency

Burntisland, Cardenden and Aberdour all scooped the top accolade in the village/town section - with Aberdour winning the coastal village category.

There were also additional discretionary awards for Burntisland and Cardenden with the former scooping a heritage zward for Kirkton Church and the latter winning a judges’ award for the Corrie Centre.

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Cardenden Environmental Group are delighted with the accolades won by Cardenden. Pictured from left: Cllr Linda Erskine, Ann Peacock, Alec Burns M.B.E. David Taylor, Cath Riley,Victoria Murdoch and Caroline Davidson. Pic: George McLuskie.

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Around 120 volunteers, representing over 40 communities, attended the 2019 Beautiful Fife awards, which celebrates the Kingdon’s community gardeners, last Wednesday at Rothes Halls in Glenrothes.

Aberdour won gold and the coastal village category in the Beautiful Fife Awards.

Volunteers from Floral Action Burntisland (FAB) were delighted with their awards which included recognition for their involvement in the restoration of the historic Kirkton Church and burial ground as well as being short-listed with a nomination for community involvement.

They have been carrying out a number of new projects to help improve the town this year including: adding extra planters along the Promenade, painting benches at the beach, painting the seawall and putting in additional tree baskets.

Pupils from Starley Hall have also been making and installing colourful sunflower sculptures at the Allan Court sheltered housing complex along with colourful sea creatures at the Beacon Leisure Centre car park.

Volunteers also organised a new fundraising open gardens afternoon last month, which saw residents opening their gardens to the public.

The 2019 Beautiful Fife award ceremony was held last Wednesday at the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes. Around 120 volunteers representing over forty communities attended the event which rewarded the communities with their medals and winners certificates. Pic: David Wardle.

Scott Sweaton, chairman of F AB, said: “We all love living in Burntisland and we want to give something back,” he said.

“What we do is very visual and the community appreciate the work we are doing. “There are lots of groups and businesses which do a lot of work within the town and support us.

“But ultimately we couldn’t do it without the support of the people of Burntisland.

“We have local residents helping us with litter picking as well as the beach cleans and Fife Council have been very supportive too. Burntisland is a lively and thriving town and FAB will continue to play a part in enhancing the community.”

Vicky Murdoch, vice-chairman of Cardenden Environmental Group said during the judges visit in July they were taken to Auchterderran Church and told about the work going on there to support the community.

These include a weekly drop in, the white ribbons on the church railings to show solidarity for the terrorist attack in Sri Lanka and the multi-coloured flowers group members painted and attached to the railings.

Judges were also told about plans to attach painted poppies to the railings at the War Memorial for Remembrance Day this year, as well as being shown the recent extensive refurbishment and new lighting at the memorial.

They were also told about the ongoing work in a community garden and work in Gammie Place with plans to install a memorial bench and Cardenden Memory Tree this autumn.

Other areas visited included a new inclusive play children’s roundabout in Wallsgreen Park and a newly refurbished ‘Duncs view’ platform. Vicky said at the Corrie Centre youngsters from the youth club have been working hard to create and maintain a garden at the front of the building.

Inside, the environment group– with funding and support from the Centre Management Committee, Fife Council and Ore Valley Housing – installed a memorial, a beautiful Thistle sculpture, to the playwright and poet Joe Corrie. The group also received support to exclusively display paintings provided from Les McConnel and William Hershaw from the launch of their show, The Sair Road.

She said: “The environment group is busy all year round and continues to make plans for future maintenance of tired or forgotten areas within the village.

“The group is ecstatic achieving this award.”

Vivky added: “The floral enhancements are aesthetically pleasing, but it is the additional work developing the well being of the community, heritage and environment projects which have given us the additional boost to achieve gold this year.”