www.crabpublishing.co.uk CRAIL MATTERS W/C 20 March No 7 incorporating About Crail Free

Denburn Dispatches The Charity Trustees’ Heavy rain on Toolkit and the role of the the first Satur - day of March Charity Chair bumped dig - Crail Matters has been informed of a seminar to be ging in Den - held in Perth on Tuesday 25 April at 6,30pm on The burn Wood to Charity Trustee Toolkit, and The role of the Charity the following Chair. The Seminar will be held in The Soutar The - weekend, but atre at the AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth, and the merry is organised by JH Mitchell, Solicitors. band of volun - If you would like to attend, please contact colin.lid - teers made up [email protected] to request a Booking Form. for the delay Places are £10 per person for either or both ses - by raking the sions and all proceeds will be donated to this year’s paths, by nominated charity PKVAS, Scottish Charity Num - making a start with planting a new flowerbed, and ber SC005561. Given the number of Charities op - by tackling all sorts of spring-time miscellanea. We erating from Crail, and some of the difficulties they also wrestled a couple of boulders away from the face, this may be considerable relevance. lawn: the conveniently bum-compatible stones found a new occupation as seats under the corkscrew willow. Clearing the burn continues bit by Planning Notices bit, and a few spadefuls at a time we are finding - Two storey rear and side extension to dwelling - uses for the soil dug out from the channel. The first house (Non-material variation to 16/03749/FULL bloom of spring flowers has already faded but helle - for two storey rear extension) - 30 Bow Butts Crail bore, lesser celandine, lungwort and daffodils are KY10 3UR all looking cheerful, and on sunny days the blue - Erection of a domestic garage and formation of anemones are impossible to miss, so carry on vis - gate and fence - 22 Pinkerton Road Crail iting! The litter-picking round in March was unusu - Anstruther Fife KY10 3UB ally quick; thank you for taking your rubbish with - Two storey extension to rear and external alter - you! Your friendly neighbourhood Denburn Diggers ations - 17 Castle Street Crail Anstruther Fife will continue gardening (and picking up rubbish after KY10 3SJ those few incapable of common decency) on the - Alterations and single storey extension to first Saturday of April at 10 a.m. dwellinghouse - 5 Balcomie Road Crail Anstruther Fife KY10 3TN - Erection of poultry unit comprising of 3 poultry houses, service building and 3 feed silos with as - Monday Club sociated infrastructure including 4 gas tanks, ac - cess, parking, drainage and boundary fencing - 20 March at 2.15pm in the Community Hall Airdrie Farm Lochton Crail Fife -Listed building consent for internal and external alterations including replacement door formation AGM, and “Stories” of new path and opening in existing boundary wall Judith Hutton Doocot Park Nethergate Crail Fife KY10 3TY

1 NOTICE OF PROPOSED ORDER TO EXEMPT LAND FROM ACCESS RIGHTS

LAND REFORM () ACT 2003 THE FIFE COUNCIL (THE RICOH BRITISH WOMENS OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, ) (EXEMPTION) ORDER 2017

Notice is hereby given under section 11(2)(b) of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (“the Act”) that The Fife Council proposes to make The Fife Council (The Ricoh British Womens Open Championship, Kings - barns) (Exemption) Order 2017 (“the Order”) under section 11(1) of the Act.

The effect of the Order will be to exempt (i) between 0600 hours on 31 July 2017 and 1900 hours on 7 Au - gust 2017 the Kingsbarns golf links, the adjacent car park a section of the coastal path, and fields to the south west of the golf links, all as shown outlined in red on the plan attached to the Order, from the access rights which would otherwise be exercisable in respect of that land by virtue of Part 1 of the Act. A local alternative route for the coastal path will be available during the currency of the Order, the details of which will be posted at both ends of the path.

The purposes for which the Order is made are to allow a charge to be made for admission to The Ricoh British Womens Open Cham - pionship and to provide for public safety and security prior to, during and after the event. It is proposed that the Order will take effect from 06:00 hours on 31 Red - area included in Exemption Order. Yellow - alternative route for Fife Coastal Path July 2017 and will ex - pire at 19:00 hours on 7 August 2017, unless revoked earlier.

Full details of the pro -

Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of HMSO. posed Order together © Crown copyright and database right 2017. All rights reserved. airvine Ordnance Survey Licence number 100023385. ± Prepared By: Parks & Countryside Aerial Photography © copyright Getmapping. Service: Scale: with a Plan showing 1:15,486 Printing Date: 07 March 2017 the land affected may be examined during normal working hours at Reception, Rothesay House, North Street, Glenrothes and on www.fifedirect.org.uk.

Objections or representations in respect of the Order may be made to the Head of Legal Services, Fife House, North Street, Glenrothes, KY7 5LT for consideration, no later than 21 days after publication of this Notice. These should be made in writing by post to the above address or email to [email protected] and in the case of objections, the grounds on which they are made should be stated.

Morag Ferguson Head of Legal Services

Editorial comment This order does not relate to the intention of Fife Council to close the access road to the beach and It would seem that objections to this will not be covered in the formal process outlined above; objectors to this should therefore presumably contact the local Fife Councillors.

2 Book bonanza! Sale of pre-loved books – adult fiction, non-fic - Crail Matters tion and children’s old and new favourite authors Funding Crail Town Hall Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd April 2017 As readers will know, Crail Matters depends on 10am-5pm all day both days voluntary donations to survive. We are very grate - Admission free All welcome! ful to the group of anonymous donors whose reg - ular donations makes publication possible. But we DONATIONS OF ANY UNWANTED BOOKS OF do need further funding to survive. We intend to ANY SORT FOR OUR CHARITY TABLE MOST keep the Newsletter free, and similarly we will not WELCOME – WE SUPPORT VARIOUS ANI - charge local organisations for advertising events. MAL WELFARE CHARITIES We also want to improve its quality and scale. If you enjoy receiving Crail Matters, and/or if your organisation places advertisements in Crail Mat - ters, if you have not already done so we urge you to think about making a donation. To give you a sense of the costs involved - the ink cartridge we use for printing is £123.00 and a box of paper is £15.00; we're having to re-order every 4 - 5 weeks.

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Letters to the Editor Corn bunting area proposal can make out my dad Jimmy Calder is in the back Crail Matters has received a number of letters in row far left under the picture. support of the proposal for the Corn Bunting area It's a bit fuzzy but there at Bow Butts. are few others who look familiar but would Closure of Kingsbarns Beach need to see original to Crail Matters has received a number of letters ob - be sure. jecting to the proposed closure of the coastal path Kind regards and the beach. Shona Irvine Crail Scouts Re the photo of Crail scouts. The venue will be the Addendum after seeing a higher quality picture: scout hall which was in Rose Wynd. From what I It's not my dad, I think it's Robert Peebles.

3 WILD CRAIL Will Cresswell, with Photographs by John Anderson

I took the day off last Thursday to work on the path ones that are easy to notice. There are many more across the pond in my back garden. I was hoping that just keep their heads down and just keep that all day just outside in Crail would pay off with feeding, eager to be on their way. I hope this early something of interest flying over. Things are start - bird is a sign of an early spring – I may have seen ing to move now and there was a steady passage a wheatear on my way to Anstruther that morning of meadow pipits all day. After an hour or two I as well. It flew over the car so I couldn’t clinch its thought I heard a chiff-chaff calling but it was only white rump, and it was silhouetted. It just looked one call – luckily a few minutes later I heard it like a wheatear – something in the way it flew - and I bet it was. I will be on the lookout at the weekend: the coastal path and fields between Crail and Anstruther is always good place for early wheatears.

My other rewards for a day spent DIYing in the garden – a peregrine flying over in its powerful but lazy way, heading far out to sea, perhaps to the May island, and a couple of hunting spar - rowhawks. Even with my head down working I knew they were coming past because of the blue tits. The top sentry bird. Whenever you hear a blue tit alarm calling (it’s the same as their song) look Chiff Chaff for the raptor. They have eyes in the back of their head and seem never to make false alarms. again. Really calling this time and then the bird it - The weather has been very variable this week with self appeared foraging very hard in the small micro gales blowing up and then interspersed with bushes and trees in my neighbour’s garden. My perfect early spring days. The sea has corre - first summer migrant of the year and a very early spondingly been choppy and then perfectly calm. record. Last year my first chiff-chaff was April 4th, Mark Twain’s saying “if you don’t like the weather, and in years before, April 8th, 4th, 15th, 7th and just wait five minutes…” seems particularly apt. I 10th. Chiff-chaffs are one of the first migrants to do love the way the ever-changing state of the sea arrive for the summer, and there have been many makes the commonplace suddenly noteworthy. records already in England this year, but they Gannets diving between two meter high breakers, don’t, as my records show, usually pass through or guillemots dotted on a flat calm sea in mirrored Crail until the first week in April. There is a fly in pairs. It was the eiders’ turn yesterday. John’s bril - the ointment though. Chiff-chaffs also winter in the liant photo of one braving the spray is like a UK small numbers (most only migrate as far as Japanese painting. Spain or North Africa, although some do cross the Sahara) and over the last 30 years the numbers doing this, particularly in England, has increased hugely. This far north it is much more unusual and I haven’t seen a wintering chiff-chaff in Crail since 2006, on February 6th, and before that a Siberian chiff-chaff on a frosty day just after Christmas by the burn at Cambo. So my money is on a genuine migrant today rather than a wintering bird. It was feeding very hard in that manner that migrants have after a long night’s flight when they really want to refuel and get on. It wasn’t singing which might indicate a migrant, but I find chiff-chaffs hardly ever sing as they pass through Crail in the Eider braving the spray spring. True you do hear them but they are the

4 Eider braving the spray Wild Crail continued King Creosote at the East Neuk I passed Kinghorn on the train mid-week and kept Hotel my eyes peeled for the humpback whale. It has The East Neuk Hotel is proving to be an increas - been breaching spectacularly – jumping right out of ingly important venue for live music in Fife. We are the water – just like they do on the wildlife docu - lucky to have a Mercury Prize nominee in our midst mentaries. I have only seen humpbacks coming up who performs here on a regular basis. During his to breathe and spouting. Impressive enough, espe - previous performance he performed cover ver - cially when close. But to see one breach – and from sions ranging from “Jolene” by Dolly Parton to the Crail. It probably wouldn’t get better than that for hauntingly beautiful “Song for the Siren” by Tim wild Crail: until I see a pod of killer whales pass, or Buckley. During his latest gig on Thursday 16th a live leatherback turtle, or a black-browed alba - March he stayed closer to home, performing songs tross (all have been seen from Crail, although not from his own Fence record label. This is very much by me yet). I just need a couple of hundred years a family affair and songs he performed on Thurs - more observing. I am grateful to all those activists day included “Comfort in Rum” written by HMS Gi - and conservationists in the 70s and 80s that made nafore , his partner Jen, and “Lavender Moon” and it possible that we have a humpback whale back in “Waterfall” by Lone Pigeon, his brother Gordon. the Forth again. And that can make me hope real - The up tempo number “Orr my dog” received an istically that I might one day see a humpback whale enthusiastic reception. from my garden (to add to the minke whale already Between numbers we were treated to hilarious on my list) anecdotes ranging from the man in India eating a pizza (don’t ask) to his own DIY exploits with a paint scraper which culminated in partial demolition of a wall! A very entertaining evening, look out for more musical evenings in the coming weeks.

Crail Community

CMahrcoh 2ir0 7.30pm Town Hall

Everyone will be made very welcome.

There is no obligation to attend every week. Crail Rowing Club Crail Rowing Club would like to thank everybody who supported the coffee morning on Saturday. A total of £281.70 was raised which will go towards the cost of mainte - nance and repairs in readiness for the coming season .

5 ROYAL OF CRAIL AND DISTRICT COMMUNITY COUNCIL NOTES

Emergency Committee tenance issues in Crail, and the Council will The development of the Crail Emergency Plan is closely monitor progress. proceeding apace, and the Emergency Planning Subcommittee has met to discuss the practical ar - Tree Charter Branch rangements necessary. Discussions are also be - The Community Council have been invited to be - ginning with Kingsbarns Community Council to come a Tree Charter Branch. This is a growing develop a joint Emergency Plan for the two vil - network of Councils and other local bodies that lages, where we will be able to share resources have a special interest in the preservation of trees and offer mutual support in the event of need. The and local woodlands. Trees and woods are hugely Subcommittee hope to have the plan finalised by valuable for our health, happiness and our chil - end of April. dren’s development. Our woodland heritage is even richer and internationally more significant Roads and Traffic Management than we realised, and the Tree Charter movement It has been agreed with Fife Council that a speed aims to stop taking trees for granted, recognise survey will be carried out in the reasonably near and celebrate their huge contribution to our lives, future in Marketgate and Road. Park - and take responsibility for their welfare. The Char - ing issues are being dealt with by Fife Council on ter for Trees will be launched in November 2017, an ongoing basis; Enforcement Officers visit Crail and the intention is that this will influence policy twice per week. Between 5 May and 7 December and practice and celebrate the role that trees and 2016, 7 Penalty Charge Notices were issued. woods play in our lives. Areas that seem particularly prone to inappropriate or illegal parking are Castle Street and Rose Closure of Kingsbarns Beach Wynd. Cars parked causing an unnecessary ob - Readers will note that an official notice of consul - struction or in a dangerous manner are a matter tation has now appeared. If you sent objections for Police action. The Community Council may ap - last week to the addresses given, we suggest you proach for high visibility speed en - write again to [email protected] . Sadly, ex - forcement where particular problems seem perience suggests that at this stage volume of ob - apparent. The Community Council has drawn the jection is as important as content. attention of Fife Council to a wide range of main -

Seen all the geese flying over? Some nearly landed at The Crail Fluke Dub, but I scared them off. Can’t have squatters in my holiday home! But seagulls are anything but Seagull consistent, and there do seem to be an awful lot of hol - An eye on our world iday homes in Crail - more than when I first came here. I sometimes wonder where local people live? I wonder What’s this stuff in last week’s issue about Corn how many there are - maybe someone should do a cen - Buntings being given a privileged feeding place? This sus. I have a nest, so I don’t pay council tax, but do all is discrimination!!! Thank goodness there’s plenty of these holiday homes pay taxes? It’s no wonder Crail dumped refuse on the roads in Crail for us to eat, along seems very quiet. with the pleasure of tearing up cartons and things. I went for a cruise along Marketgate on Wednesday, and my eyes were blinded by the vivid colours of the Speaking of refuse, I saw a tasty morsel on Nethergate, new flag. I’m sure I saw someone pointing to it, and swooped down to get it before a rude crow beat me, saying ‘it’s a case of lead kindly flag, amidst the en - and landed in dog poo!! Bring back the Crail chalker I circling gloom’. say.

Material for inclusion in Crail Matters should be sent to [email protected] and received on Friday midday before 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

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