News from City of Dunfermline Area Committee - Feb

This is a round up of the reports considered and decisions taken at the City of Dunfermline Area Committee this morning Tuesday 7 February 2023.

Additional support to help tackle poverty in Dunfermline

£62,000 of funding has been allocated by the City of Dunfermline Area Committee to help tackle poverty in the Dunfermline area. This funding will come from the Area’s Anti-poverty budget, money set aside specifically to support individuals and families who are experiencing poverty and require the information and support required to prevent them getting into crisis.

Part of the funding will be used to recruit a tutor in cooking skills. Cooking is an important skill that can reduce food costs and improve the diet, enabling people to eat healthily at a lower cost.  The tutor will educate families by demonstrating how to substitute cheaper ingredients or even miss out items that do not add to a recipe. Also, by showing how to prepare and use whole ingredients, which tend to be cheaper, families can gain the knowledge to spend available cash more wisely.

The funding will also pay for additional hours for essential support officers who are able to give struggling individuals and families advice on maximising income from any benefits they may be due, preventing homelessness and ensuring an early, joined up support network.

Councillor James Calder, Convener of the committee, said “In these difficult times we’re fortunate to be able to allocate this £62,000 of funding to help support those who were struggling. For some it can be simple advice and support that is necessary. Others need more in-depth help. Our officers working in the community are best placed to offer that support and the additional hours will mean more people can be reached.

The cooking tutor will work with individuals and families to both advise and demonstrate ways to save money yet still maintain a healthy menu.“

The cooking tutor will work from various locations, delivering courses throughout the Dunfermline area.

Speed reduction on Lapwing Drive

Updating Dunfermline City signage

Following the elevation of Dunfermline to city status, Network Rail have now renamed the main station to Dunfermline City. In order to standardise signage around the city centre £13,500 has been allocated by the City of Dunfermline Area Committee towards updating all the current pedestrian signage and maps.

Councillor James Calder, Convener of the committee, said “Dunfermline’s city status is still relatively new. We are working hard to raise our profile and encourage more people and investment into the city. Updating the signage is a small change but it will cause less confusion to our visitors. “

Additional funding was also secured the Scottish Government’s Smarter Choices Smarter Places programme and ScotRail Abellio’s Transport Integration Fund.

Dunfermline’s positive economic profile

The Local Area Economic Profile shows that Dunfermline performing relatively well against not just other parts of Fife but in cases, better than Scotland as a whole. Dunfermline has a thriving economy, good median earnings and economic inactivity is down.

Here are some of the positive statistics that back this statement up:

• The latest employment rate in the City of Dunfermline committee area was 80.4%. This was the highest rate in Fife and higher than the rate for Scotland as a whole (74.4%).
• The level of Economic Inactivity (ie the proportion of the working age (16-64yrs) population neither in work nor actively seeking work) in the Dunfermline committee area (16.3%) is the lowest in Fife and significantly lower than the Scottish average (22.9%).
• The percentage of 16-19-year-olds participating in education, training or employment in the Dunfermline Scottish Parliamentary Constituency Area is the highest in Fife (93.1%).

• The average earnings of people living in the Dunfermline & West Fife UK Parliamentary Constituency Area are the highest in Fife (£622.00) and workplace earnings in the area are the second highest (£628.80).
• The number of jobs in the Dunfermline area increased by 6.9% in the 2-year period between September 2019 and September 2021 (from 29,000 to 31,000 jobs) and is the highest of the seven committee areas in Fife. 88% of all Fife’s employment in Financial & Insurance activity is located in Dunfermline along with 64% of Fife’s jobs in the Information & Communication sector.  Business Gateway Fife supported 102 new business start-ups in the Dunfermline area in 2021-22.
• There is a smaller percentage of people in the Dunfermline area (2.7%) claiming out-of-work benefits than before the pandemic (3.3%).
• Although tourism in Fife is yet to fully recover from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Dunfermline and West Fife area saw the strongest recovery in 2021 with an increase of 75.1% in visitor numbers on the previous year. Initial Fife-wide figures for the first six months of 2022 suggest that visitor numbers had returned to around 90% of 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

Councillor James Calder, Convener of the committee, said “While we thought Dunfermline seemed to be performing well it is great to see that the Local Economic Profile supports this perception.

“Much of this success is also due to the various partner organisations that the Council works with, particularly those that have helped boost our numbers in local tourism. It has been particularly pleasing to see the significant footfall coming from cruise ships again.”

Dunfermline’s city status will help us to grow our local economy further, encourage more visitors to the city, support local businesses and build on the relative success we are currently demonstrating.“

Touch Community Centre kitchen to get an upgrade