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CRAIL MATTERSincorporating About Crail W/C 22 March No 8

Free

Crail Kirk Daffodil Coffee Morning

On Saturday morning, 18 March, the Crail ParishChurch opened their newest addition to the Kirk Hall -a back garden patio. The Kirk Hall was built in 1998but the back garden needed a facelift. So it was decidedby the Church to add a lovely back garden patio area.Mark and Jan Johnson started the work last year. Typi-cally our regular Scottish weather gave them a few chal-lenges to get the patio done. Mark and Jan just dug into get the job done. Well done Mark and Jan!

Saturday morning Rev Ann Allison cut the ribbon to of-ficially open the patio at 10:30am. The visitors of thecoffee morning followed Ann to see the beautiful newarea. Everyone loved the daffodils and the large spacethat could be used for any event. Many said what alovely place to have a barbecue or family gathering. Sonow the Kirk Hall has the lovely inside and the beauti-ful back patio. Everyone is welcome to come in to seethe newest addition.

The Daffodil Coffee Morning was a great success andthe Kirk Hall team wants to personally thank everyone(69 guests) that came to open the garden patio. Therewere lovely homemade scones, pancakes and short-bread for everyone to enjoy with coffee or tea. Therewas of course a stall with Daffodils, homemade jam andlemon curd which sold out. The raffle was a great suc-cess with over 200 tickets sold. The Kirk Hall teamwants to also thank everyone who brought from the stalland the raffle tickets. We raised £395.70 for the Hallfunds.

So the next time you are planning gatherings pleasecheck out the Kirk Hall and the back garden patio. It isa very lovely place to have your special event.

Book bonanza!Sale of pre-loved books – adult fiction, non-fictionand children’s old and new favourite authors

Crail Town HallSaturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd April 2017

10am-5pm all day both daysAdmission free All welcome!

DONATIONS OF ANY UNWANTED BOOKS OFANY SORT FOR OUR CHARITY TABLE MOSTWELCOME – WE SUPPORT VARIOUS ANIMAL

WELFARE CHARITIES

Crail Community ChoirMarch 277.30pmKirk Hall

Everyone will be made very welcome.

There is no obligation to attend every week.

Crail Matters extends its condolences to the families of those bereaved by the atrocity in London on Wednesday,and we offer our deepest sympathy to all affected.

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It is that time of year, whether you are in Crail or theWashington DC, when our thoughts turn to readying thegarden for the growing season ahead. It is also the timewhen I wish I was living in Crail where gardeningseems like a more relaxing endeavour. Washingtondoes have its beautiful azaleas in early spring and ofcourse the famous Japanese cherry trees around its tidalbasin. But for the average gardener establishing andmaintaining a beautiful garden is an uphill struggle.

In the Washington area we have a climate of extremeswhere temperatures can go down to -17C in winter andup to 38C with high humidity in summer. From thisyou can appreciate how challenging survival is for theplants. Without constant summer watering it wouldn’tbe possible to have a garden. The best thing we everdid for our garden was to invest in a sprinkler system.

As tends to happen in hot humid conditions we are alsochallenged with bugs – both the plant eating variety andthe gardener eating variety. Mosquitos can get quite vi-cious – in particular the striped Tiger mosquito that car-ries a nasty bite. West Nile virus, a serious importeddisease spread by mosquitos, is also a risk to gardeners.

If that wasn’t enough perhaps the biggest challenge to

the gardener’s sanity is the swelling deer populationthat, as in parts of the UK, brings with it the risk ofLime disease. Although we live less than 20 minutesfrom the White House we have processions of dearmunching though our garden day and night, especiallyin spring with the succulent buds on offer. Of our gar-den plants hosta is their favourite but they will also

gladly eat any-thing else thatdoesn’t smellor have a fuzzytexture.

T h a n k f u l l ysome plants,like ligularia,are not to theirtaste. To pro-tect the others I

have to spray every two weeks with a foul smelling or-ganic mix of garlic, rotten eggs, dried blood and manyother revolting ingredients. No one else in the familyis inclined to help with this task. So next time you feeltempted to complain about the adverse conditions forgardening in Crail spare a thought for me!

Letter from AmericaSusan Fleming, Washington DC

Crail Folk ClubMarch is working well so far - an excellent singers nighton 9th with more singers than listeners; a fabulous showfrom Wizz Jones on 16th. So, we have generously de-cided to give you a bonus Singers Night on Thursday30th. We are back to old and now, for most of the rest ofthe year, our regular haunt - Crail Town Hall 8pm.Thanks to Crail Kirk for letting us have the excellentKirk Hall for Wizz Jones. It worked well for us.

Our Singers Nights are an opportunity for local perform-ers and visitors alike to demonstrate their talents. We arefortunate in Crail, and surrounding districts, to have somany talented singers and musicians so always a highstandard. If, like me, you are not one of them just comealong anyway and enjoy listening – it only costs £1.

Full details of our programme can be had at www.crail-folkclub.org.uk

Planning Notices- Installation of porch and internal alterations in con-junction with subdivision of existing dwelling houseto form two cottages at Sea Cottage WormistonAnstruther Fife KY10 3XH - Alterations and single storey extension to dwelling-house at 5 Balcomie Road, Crail Anstruther FifeKY10 3TN - Listed building consent for installation of replace-ment windows - 4 Marketgate South MarketgateCrail Anstruther Fife KY10 3TL

Dear ReadersRe: Crail Matters FundingFollowing our appeal in Issue No. 7 for funding, we are delighted to announce that several anonymousdonors have made very generous donations towards our weekly operating costs.We would like to publicly acknowledge our grateful thanks for these donations which are truly much ap-preciated, thank you all very much. Please continue to support us.Editorial Team

Sponsor forms are now available for MandyGuthrie’s Half Marathon in aid of Crail Churchfunds. They can be found in the Butcher, theChemist, The Golf Hotel, at the back of CrailChurch and in the Hall.

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Fife Plan AdoptedPublic objections ignored by both Fife Plan-ners and the Scottish Government Reporters.

Following publication of the Report of Examination by the Scottish Government reporters on 18thNovember 2016, all recommended modifications to the Fife Plan were accepted by Fife Council’s Executive Com-mittee at their meeting on the 28th February 2017. The Scottish Ministers will be informed of Fife Council’s intentionto adopt FIFEplan, the Proposed Fife Local Development Plan (as modified). A formal notice will be published inthe Dundee Courier (Fife Edition) on the 24th March 2017, and following a statutory period of 28 days, unlessScottish Ministers indicate otherwise, the Plan will be adopted.

This is what the Plan means for Crail:1. 320 houses to be built to the North of Crail over a 20 year period, with an indicative total of 160 being built withinthe Development Plan period.2. A new local centre (including shops) will be located within this development3. This site will form a new gateway to Crail; building heights (1 or 1 1⁄2 storeys) will be appropriate along the north-ern approach and edge with a transition to higher densities around the proposed central square. 4. Proposals will be made for an alternative route to Balcomie Road.5. Unspecified industrial units are included in the Plan.

Significant public objections were made to the proposed scale of development, the creation of a new centre in com-petition with the existing centre of Crail, and the negative impact all this will have on the provision of services inCrail. All these objections were dismissed by both Fife Planners and the Government Reporter without any justifi-cation or debate. There has been no discussion with Community Groups or the Community Council about the natureof the development, although there has been detailed discussion with the landowner through High Point Crail, a com-pany wholly owned by the family of the landowner. Further discussions with the landowners and/or developer is en-visaged, with reference to the community being consulted but not included in these discussions, despite the fact thatdecisions made will materially affect the conditions under which we live.

Other communities have similarly expressed major concerns about the Fife Plan, and they too have been ignored.Cupar North, for example, is planned to accommodate1,400 new homes. A community meeting was held lastweek at which more than 100 people attended, hosted byCupar Community Council. Neither Fife Council Offi-cers nor the proposed developer turned up to the meeting!

The East Neuk generally, and Crail (and Kingsbarns)specifically, has seen the result of Fife Planners care inpreserving the integrity of local villages – despite theplatitudes of respect for the environment, need to pre-serve the character of the village, etc. we all know thatthis gives the green light to a rapacious developer to ex-ploit for profit a precious resource with the Planning au-thorities acting as facilitators, and residents appear to beunable to even influence the decision-making process,let alone stop it. It suggests that local democracy has noplace in modern Scotland. It also raises questions aboutthe effectiveness of the democratically elected represen-tatives in making the voice of residents heard. Surely thismust become an issue in the forthcoming Council elec-tions.

Editorial Comment

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Crail History SocietyTuesday 28 March 2017

7.30pm The British Legion Hall

The Milestones of Fife A Talk by Dr. Paula Martín

Admission £2.50/free for members

Deadline for submission of objections

to the proposed rerouting of the Coastal Path andclosure of Kingsbarns beach:

7 AprilObjections to june.barrie@fife.gov.uk

or to The Head of Legal Services, Fife House,North Street, Glenrothes, KY7 5LT

One of Scotland's major food festivals makes a returnfor its seventh year with a host of local flavours, tast-ings, children's activities, the opportunity to meet themakers and the now famous, Sunday Lunch at the Har-bour. Crail Food Festival opens on Saturday 10th Juneacross six venues.

Visitors can taste and try before they buy at the IndoorFood & Drink Market in the Crail Community Hall.This is a wonderful opportunity to meet the faces be-hind some of Scotland's best artisanal food and drink,including whisky and gin from Kingsbarns Distillery,chocolates from Charlotte Flowers and the PittenweemChocolate Company, bread from master bakers, Bar-netts Bakery and delicacies and homegrown fruit fromBalgove Larder and Ardoss Farm Shop and much more.The market runs on the Saturday only.

Marquees will be placed down Marketgate. Music andmunching will be the order of the day with hot disheslike wood-fired pizza and fish tacos and gourmettoasties, ice-creams, chocolate and other local treats onoffer accompanied by live music.

At the Crail Kirk Hall, family-run farm shop, Ardrosswill co-host the Cookery Theatre with a schedule ofchefs and food producers revealing the secrets of greatfood and drink. From Michelin-starred chefs to hands-on cookery teacher and experts on local food heritage,the timetable offers a line-up that's both informative andentertaining.

A full programme of tastings will take place at Crail Le-gion Hall. With many visitors to Crail Food Festival cit-ing the event as instrumental in their discovery of newfavourite food and drink, this is a chance for everyone

to try a wide variety of new flavours: from gin and jamto cheese and cocktails.

For the duration of the festival, the Marine Hotel at theheart of the village is transformed into a space dedicatedto children. The Children's Tea Party comes completewith storytelling, puppetry and the opportunity for par-ents to relax over tea and cake.

On the evening of Saturday 10th June, an Evening Sup-per and Entertainment will take place at Crail Commu-nity Hall. The event promises to be a showcase of thebest local produce with live entertainment. This is eventis ticketed separately and costs £20.

On Sunday 11th,the venues cometo life again andthe Indoor Food& Drink Marketis replaced bySunday Lunch atthe Harbour. Inthe harbour, festi-val-goers can select their lunch from a series of streetfood vendors. Local ice-cream, hand-pressed applejuice, shellfish, venison, fish and chips and haddocksmoked traditionally over a barrel will all be on offer.

Crail Food Festival opens at 10.30am and costs £5 foran adult (entry for children is free). The day pass allowsentry to all daytime venues and free parking.

More information can be found at crailfoodfest.co.ukor follow @CrailFoodFest on Twitter or like the eventon Facebook.

Crail Food Festival

The GuildThe Guild meet on Thursday March 30th in the Kirk Hall at 7pm when the Rotary choir will besinging 'Songs from Six Nations'. All are most welcome, refreshments will be served. (Pleasenote this is an evening meeting at 7pm)

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ROYAL BURGH OF CRAIL AND DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL NOTES

mittee? Fife Council in fact claim in communicationwith local MSP’s that there has been consultation withCrail Community Council - in fact there has not.

This failure to be open with planning proposals suggestsanother issue - the aversion of Fife Council Planning of-ficials to engage with local communities. In the case ofthe Local Development Plan, the landowner who willbenefit from the planning permissions was consulted(somewhat deceptively in the guise of their consultancy),but there has been no discussion with local communities,or in our case with Crail Community Council. As a com-munity, we have amongst us people with probably equalor greater relevant experience than Fife Council Officials– why are they not engaged as the equals they are? Whyis the underlying planning logic not discussed and ex-plored with those who are affected by the outcomes? Theway objections to the Local Development Plan were sim-ply dismissed suggests a protective and brittle arrogance– protective and brittle because of course the assump-tions made may well not stand up to open scrutiny.

These experiences call into question the adequacy oflocal democracy, but they also raise issues about how theScottish Government discharges its duty to oversee con-sultation and community involvement.

Elsewhere in this newsletter, the inappropriateness of theFife Local Development Plan is discussed. Whatever therights or wrongs might be of building more affordablehousing or more holiday homes, and the nature and qual-ity of what might be built, there is a fundamental problemwith the planning process as we experience it. We canalso see this in the way that the proposal to close accessto the coastal Path at Kingsbarns (and the beach) has beenhandled; both illustrate the failure to consult, to listen toor even recognise the relevance of local voices. Thewhole process is not working in the interests of those wholive here, in that the voice of local people is simply notbeing heard. So, our experience of the process of creatingthe Local Development Plan seems typical of a muchlarger and more fundamental problem.

One issue is the way local representation seems to oper-ate. We might use the example of the Kingsbarns closureto illustrate this. According to the local MSP’s, ‘membersof the North East Fife Area Committee gave consent forthe Order to proceed to statutory consultation and minis-terial review on February 22nd. The Council felt that thereasons for the request which included the safety of walk-ers were appropriate reasons for issuing an exemptionorder.’ Why was this not rejected at that point? Perhapsmore pertinently, why was there no local consultation be-fore the matter went to the North East Fife Area Com-

Glass RecyclingThe problem of providing an appropriate location for glass recycling in Crail remains an unresolved issue. Perhapsits time to seek alternative solutions. One approach is for the larger users of glass bottles to recycle their own material.Small scale recycling systems exist that grind bottles into useable sand - one example is glass2sand.com. This systemclaims that 120 beer bottles or 60 standard wine bottles reduce to half a bucket of sand, which they claim is safe tohandle and dispose of. If the Council is unwilling or unable to provide a public facility, perhaps local solutions like

this need to be explored. Thiswould not solve the problem forhouseholders, but it might helpbusinesses that generate a lot ofbottles.

Our difficult timesThe recent terrorist attack in Lon-don brings to mind a quotation byChurchill - ‘When danger is far off,we may think of our weakness:when it is near we must not forgetour strength’. This really doesspeak to the times we live in at anumber of levels.

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WILD CRAILWill Cresswell,

with Photographs by John Anderson

There has been a cold easterly wind this week –there might well be a black redstart at Fife Nessarriving anytime soon. But the sea has been dis-appointing: only gannets passing a little closer inand almost nothing else.

I took a walk around Kilrenny mid-morning lastWednesday. Despite the cold everything wascranking up for breeding. The tree sparrows wereeverywhere very busy chirping in pairs and hang-ing around the nest boxes. There was a fair bit of

robin, greattit, blackbirdand chaffinchsong, withskylarks anda cornb u n t i n gsinging in thea d j a c e n tfield. I foundmy first Crailarea lesserblack-backedgull of the

year amongst a flock of herring gulls in a winterwheat field. Like chiff-chaffs, these summer mi-grants have become more and more resident overthe last 40 years. My bird that day could havebeen newly arrived from Morocco for the summeror one of the handful of birds that winter aroundCellardyke. I will go for newly arrived migrant justbecause it appeals more to me, and in any case itis no. 102 for the Crail year list.

I have been working in the garden some more re-cently and after the chiff-chaff of last week I havebeen hoping for more birds passing through orover. Last Thursday’s pipe dream was an osprey.I have only ever seen one Crail osprey; a late sum-mer bird passing over Kingsbarns beach and thenover Crail, heading to West Africa. But they mustpass over Crail every year. Every time the gullsstarted making a fuss I looked up in hope but theywere just particularly noisy. Even the local buz-zards weren’t flying over and upsetting them, Ithink it was just boisterousness and squabblesover rooftop territories. One bird I did notice, how-ever, was a male greenfinch or two displaying overthe bottom of my garden. Greenfinches have a ca-

nary like twittering and a very distinctive stiffwinged, slow wingbeat display flight in the spring.They look like big yellow-green butterflies. Theirstilted flight makes them look a little bit like swal-lows too so they often catch my eye at this time ofyear. Greenfinches have become less common inrecent years because of a disease epidemiccaused by a protozoan parasite but they still re-main a common bird. Every garden in Crail willhave a greenfinch singing over it or nearby andthey certainly brighten up an early spring, osprey-less, day.

The sea remained quiet all through the week. Justgulls, gannets, cormorants and shags. The cor-morants are mostly developing breeding plumagenow with white thigh patches and white around thebase of their bills. Although we think of cormorantsas coastal, they are a bird of rivers and lakes inmost other parts of Europe, nesting in big tree

Gannet

Tree Sparrow

Greenfinch

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colonies like herons. Cormorants here nest at thebase of the cliffs amongst the rocks on the May

Island. Every evening I watch them fly back to theisland to roost, even during the winter: the safetyof the May worth the five mile flight from Crail.

Balcomie Beach was also very quiet this week. Allof the waders seem to have moved on apart fromthe oystercatchers and a few redshanks. Thewaders that appear from now onwards will bestaging on their way north to breed. It really isquite quiet everywhere at the moment and I findmyself eager for the spring to get going to improvethe chance of encountering something special outthere. Springs are very unpredictable here interms of good numbers of interesting migrant birds– something good always turns up but some yearsthere are lots of good things. We are due a springof red-backed shrikes with a hoopoe and abluethroat for good measure.

Cormorant

We are proud to present on our website crailfestival.com what we are confident is a superb Programme for our2017 Festival and would like to invite local residents to help us make the Festival a big success. You can do thiseither by making a financial contribution or by volunteering just a little of your time. You can become involved inthe Festival in two ways:

1) By becoming a ‘Friend of Crail Festival’. You can do this by sending a donation along with a copy of thedonation form below. As a small thank you, Friends will be invited to the Art Exhibition Preview and reception onthe 18th July at 7:30pm in the Town Hall.

2) By joining our team of Festival volunteers. Even if you can only spare a few hours (either in the monthsbefore or during the Festival itself) we would be very grateful for your help. Full details are on our website: justclick on ’Volunteers’. Or contact Jill Bueckardt at jillianbueckardt@gmail.com or on 01333 450644 if you wouldlike to join the team.

The website also has full details of our 2017 programme and details of how you can purchase tickets for events.Early birds will have a first opportunity on Saturday 27th May at 10 am – 12 noon in the Town Hall.

Many thanks in advance for whatever you are able to do towards the success of the Festival. We are sure that youwill enjoy this year’s programme.

The Crail Festival Committee

(The Royal Burgh of Crail Festival Society Trust (known as Crail Festival Society) is a Charity; CharityNo SC020929)

Please sign and date this section of the form if you wish to make your donation under the GiftAid Scheme through which the Society can reclaim tax on the donation you make. This will in-crease each donation by 25% providing you have paid sufficient Income Tax.

Signature ofTaxpayer…………………………………Date …………………………………….

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The CrailSeagull

An eye on our world

Seagulls are an itinerant lot, and don’t have to buythe land they nest on - we just move where thefancy takes us, which of course is why I can havemy summer nest at Fluke Dub and my other nestin Crail. But my knowledgeable friend in Glen-rothes was exercised recently about how muchmoney owners of development land can make.

Farmland can fetch £6,000-£7,000 per acre. Thesame land designated for development makesaround £400,000-£500,000 per acre, an increaseof 7,000%!"! Some people must be really pleasedabout the Fife Development Plan.

What will I do with all the money I save on notpaying for my holiday home at Fluke Dub now?The Royal Bank of Scotland closed the branch inCrail last year and next, they will be closing theAnstruther and other branches in October. I’ll needto fly all the way to St Andrews now to make ‘de-posits’.

Material for inclusion in Crail Matters should be sent to crailmatters@gmail.com and received on Friday middaybefore publication. We reserve the right to edit copy for length and style. Submission does not guarantee inclu-

sion.© Crab Publishing 2017: Editorial Team this week: Graham Anderson, Julie Middleton, Isla Reid, Valencia

Sowry, Max Taylor, John Wilson

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION THURSDAY 4 MAY 2017Final Date for delivery of nominations papers - 4.00pm Wednesday 29 March.Nominations are available for inspection 4.00pm 30 March to 4.00pm 3 MayDeadline for applications to be included on the Register of electors Midnight 17 aprilDeadline for new Postal Vote Applications and for changes to existing Postal or Proxy Votes 5.00pm 18 AprilDeadline for new applications to vote by Proxy (not Postal Proxy, except for emergencies 5.00pm 25 April

Polling Day Thursday 4 May

Helen Byres

This full bag of dog poo has been strategicallyplaced alongside the bin outside nos 17/15 Market-gate North. Lovely! It really is difficult to understandwhy someone would do this. Wish I'd seen who leftit there. If you see evidence of this kind of behaviourit is in all our interests to report it.

Scottish Government Consultation

The Scottish Government is currently running apublic consultation on unconventional oil and gasin Scotland. The consultation explores the evi-dence on the potential impacts of shale oil andgas, and coal bed methane, and the technologiesinvolved in extraction, including hydraulic fractur-ing. The consultation may be of particular interestto you as the area where the shale oil and gas re-sources have been identified is in your Commu-nity Council area.

The consultation can be read and responded tovia the Scottish Government’s consultation plat-form, Citizen Space, at: https://consult.scot-land.gov.uk/energy-and-climate-change-directorate/fracking-unconventional-oil-and-gas/.

A response is invited to the consultation by 31May.