ST. MONANS AND ABERCROMBIE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minute of the ordinary general meeting, held in the Church Hall, Station Road on Monday 16th March 2026 at 7.30 pm

Present: Marjory Ashworth (Chair), Eileen Montador (Secretary), David Robertson (Treasurer), Suzy Cheong, Katy Gall, Peter Peddie, Cllr Alycia Hayes, Diane Martin (Minute Secretary)

Apologies: Cllr Sean Dillon

Members of the public: 81.

1. Welcome and apologies
Marjory Ashworth welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies were received and recorded.

2. Declarations of interest
There were no declarations of interest.

3 Invited speaker: David F Wilson – Artist for the commission to be located at the new housing development.
Mr Wilson visited the CC previously to gather information and ideas for his commission. Initial discussions suggested including the themes of agriculture and the sea in the design, and also the nether town (part of the town nearest the sea) and over town (part of the town nearest the land) which are unique to St Monans.
Mr Wilson showed sketches of his two proposals and, following discussion and vote, there was agreement that the design of a modified anchor with sea/sky/fields, which will be made in bronze, was the preferred option. This is likely to be located at the suds pond near the public path. The dimensions will be determined by the budget available. The timescale for production will depend on when the client & council agree.
Mr Wilson will take this forward and will also email the CC copies of the design.

4. Reports from Community Groups

Jim Matthews Camera Collection – Mike Child
Mr Child was at the meeting to provide an update following his visit this time last year. The camera collection, is located in 8 West Street. The building entrance can be difficult to locate and therefore a post box has been installed on the outside with a picture on it to assist visitors and provide a secure, dry place for any mail. Since last year, there has been storm damage to the roof which was repaired following an insurance claim. Additional display cabinets have been sourced to house the collection which continues to grow. There are approximately 4000 cameras under the one roof, and they recently received a donation of 500 cameras. Some donations have been treasures i.e. cameras worth a lot of money. Duplicate cameras will now be put up for sale to bring in additional revenue, as there are no entrance fees with the collection relying on donations. More volunteers are needed on a Wednesday or on local events days. The collection has a Facebook page. and can host group visits for up to 10 people. The collection is open from Wed 1.4.26 from 8-1pm. A suggestion was made that the collection join the Fife Council Open Doors day which gets a lot of free publicity across Fife. Pete Peddie to forward the relevant details. It was also suggested that the trustees take a table at the Sea Queen day to help promote the collection.

SMAKE – for Peter Peddie
The group have now raised the match funding required to access our £115,000 from the National Lottery heritage fund. This will be used to update our business plan. The match funding was met by £20000 from the Architectural Heritage Fund, £10000 from St Monans Common Good fund, £10000 from the Innes Family Trust, £5000 from Friends of the Auld Kirk and other donations. 200 people from the community have joined SMAKE confirming that the community is fully behind the group.

Pools and Pans – for Peter Peddie
Now have a scope of works document which details the costs involved in getting a tender document up and running. We need over £400000 just to get necessary permissions in place. The suspected works will be in the region of £2.5 million which will include the site from the Pans along to Rose Street. It is an extremely complicated site involving various bodies from East Neuk Landscape Area, St Monans Windmill & Salt Pans Scheduled Area, Firth of Forth Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Mining Development High Risk Area, a High Risk of Coastal Flooding Area. All parties involved in this site will to be consulted before any permissions will be granted. Cllr Hayes Alycia trying to get Fife council to finance the funding for the tender document.

Heritage – Mary Henderson
Hoping to open on Good Friday of Easter weekend. Need a rota to be drawn up and need more volunteers.

Sea Queen – Vicky Roberston 25th July
Now have a Sea Queen – Kyla Brown has agreed to be the Sea Queen on 25th July 2026.Bongo Bingo is planned for Friday 3rd April with a disco afterwards. Ticket sales are quite slow at the moment. £15 per ticket.

Floral Group – Katy Gall
The group is continuing to tidy up tubs and also the serenity garden. Welly garden has been brightened up. Looking to paint some of the benches throughout the village and also looking to attract donations. Suggest another flyer to be distributed around the village?

Memorial Garden Group – Mary Henderson
Phase 2 started – bollards, bench and information board. A fundraiser afternoon tea will be held at Balcarres on the 5th of July.M Ashworth thanked all who are volunteering on various different groups throughout the village.

5. Last minutes and matters arising
• Harbour Food Shop now has a temporary licence.
• Planning application query in Abercrombie (tree felling). Mrs Ashworth wrote to the planning department and read out the written response from the Council which explained that the process undertaken followed the council policy.
• Public Art – David Wilson attended the meeting tonight.
• Gritting lorry gritting unevenly. Alycia reported that all vehicles are calibrated regularly. Also, when they are reviewing routes, they will add in the area at the fire station.
• Channel drains – due to exceptionally high rainfall. Advised to look for the adjacent drains.The February minute was proposed by Eileen Montador and seconded by Katy Gall.

6. Police Matters and Report
Contact email address: eastneuklandwardCPT@scotland.police.uk
Our police contacts: PC Rob Wallace and also PC Davie Gordon who is replacing PC Rob Cook. There have been various visits locally including the nursery, Beacon Court. Highlighting scams e.g. the gift card scam. 5 calls from Abercrombie with 0 crimes recorded. 19 calls from St Monans and 1 crime recorded.Various reports made about parking issues and speeding locally, including the FC bin lorry and the gritter. Abercrombie, Station Road, Inverie Street, Queen Margaret Street. This will be reported to the police by the CC.

7. Chairperson’s Report – Marjory Ashworth
• Beach clean not yet arranged. Tide times obtained.

8. Treasurer’s Report – David Robertson
• Cash Flow Account – £4,909.63 this is made up of, Community Council available funds – £1,390.76 and Memorial Garden funds – £3,518.87
• Common Good Fund Application – Applied for
• Floral Account – £2,181.18
• Floral grant for 25/26 applied for
• Floral grant for 26/27 to be applied for after April 2026
• Heritage Centre – £1,492.93
• Electricity – Account ongoing – Katy Gall dealing with
• NNG Fund – Paperwork Sent – Awaiting activation

9. Secretary’s Report
• Survey received of possible funding like English Parish Councils.
• Street lighting – have we anything hanging on them? No, not now as we have reduced the number of hanging baskets.
• FC are pressuring us to have a vice chair on our council. Eileen Montador proposed Suzy Cheong, and Pete Peddie seconded this. Cllr Hayes also provided her approval for this. We have room for 10 on our CC and we only have 6.

10. Members’ Reports
Katy Gall – Planning
• Change of materials to rear patio doors at 3 The Cribbs
• Prior approval of the installation of replacement windows at 2 George Terrace
• 56 Newark Street – retrospective planning which was discussed further. Cllr Hayes outlining options. The CC secretary to send a letter to FC to request our right as a statutory consultee.
• Query speed signs as you come into St Monans from Bowhouse direction. Flashing speed light is not working.

11. Councillors’ Reports Cllr Alycia Hayes
• Outlined the implications of agreeing to being funded like the English Parish Councils. £9 per head of voting population per year with responsibility for village halls, and a whole host of other village resources such as graveyards, traffic signs, street lighting play areas etc. St Monans and Abercrombie CC are not supportive of this.
• Update re her meeting with Ken Gourlay CEO of the FC. Staff savings made which could/should be moved to other areas and spent on things people really need. Mr Gourlay will endeavour to have improvements made to the website systems to help keep the public and the Councillors updated as to the progress of works needing attention.
• Planning consultations – should go through Community Consultation exercises – but will this actually have any impact on the final decision? FC persistently ignore the National Planning framework – they need to listen to communities.
• Didn’t back budget. £13 million capital and none of it came to East Fife.

12. Public Questions
• Seaweed in harbour – smell and flies – needs removed. Cllr Hayes to report.
• Marjory Ashworth reported the missing signage for sawmill corner. There have been 5 accidents recently and the signs are desperately needed.
• Council property on Gourlay Crescent – dismantled sheds /overgrown trees in 18/20 Gourlay Crescent. Old cars etc. Cllr Hayes will deal with this item.
• 10 cars in a bungalow garden in 19 Gourlay Crescent – fire concern as full of rubbish?

13. AOCB
• Silent Hill game – DR emailed the company re collaboration.

14. Close/date and time of next meeting
The next meeting will be on Monday 20th April 2026 at 7.00/7.15 pm.
Marjory Ashworth thanked everyone for their attendance and brought the meeting to a close.