FIFE Council staff hit the streets of Locghelly town centre last month to quiz residents for their thoughts and ideas for the area.  The information will help to shape projects being taken through the short-term initiatives group.

Hazel Cross, Economic Adviser for Fife Council’s Development Services and Project Manager for Lochgelly Charrette’s short term initiatives group, said: “We received 90 responses to the perception study carried out in Lochgelly in March 2011. These have given us a vital snapshot of people’s views on the Town Centre, how they use it and the kinds of improvements to the retail offer they would like to see.”

Some key responses from the study indicate that:

• 63% of respondents work either full or part-time with 22% of respondents working within the town
• 39% of respondents live in the town
• 42% of respondents shop in the town at least once a week with 9% shopping in the town everyday.  This demonstrates that the town is an important retail centre; however, 29% of respondents shop in the town less than once a month.
• 74% of respondents rated the town as either poor (42%) or very poor (32%) for shopping. If this is combined with the result of 42% of respondents shopping in the town at least once a week it indicates that although there are a high number of people using the town every week, they would like to see an improved retail offer.
• 88% of respondents do not use the town for their major food shop which can be interpreted that people are using other centres to do their major food shop.  There is a relatively high demand for more food and grocery stores within the town with 69% of respondents indicating that they wanted to see more food and grocery stores.
• 45% of respondents felt that the access to public transport was good 

Hazel Cross said of these figures: “The results help to identify where the existing town centre offer is working well and allows us to focus on interventions that will address areas of concern”.