A review of the council’s estate last year highlighted that many community buildings are under used, no longer fit for purpose or don’t meet the needs of local people. A maintenance backlog also means substantial costs over the next 10 years if the council were to maintain all the buildings it currently owns.

Now there are nine buildings across Fife up for grabs to groups who can demonstrate they can use them for the benefit of their community.

Tim Kendrick, Fife Council’s community planning manager, said: “The way we deliver services is always evolving. We’ve accumulated buildings over decades and many are no longer planned around what people need now. The council looked carefully at all of our buildings in each of the seven local areas across Fife, considering running and maintenance costs, how they are used and the needs of the local community.

“Using this information, councillors thought about better ways to sustain local services and facilities, and identified buildings which can be sold, buildings which could be used in a different way, and buildings which should be kept to deliver a wider range of council and community services.”

Now the council wants to hear from local groups and organisations who might be interested in taking over any of these buildings. Information is now online at www.fifedirect.org.uk/CAT where people can find out more about the community asset transfer process as well as on individual buildings.

The nine buildings being put forward are:

Tim added: “Reducing the number of buildings the council runs doesn’t mean closing them all. We have already seen some halls and centres successfully transferred to local communities that have access to funding and resources that just aren’t available to the council. We want this to continue and funding has been set aside through the Community Asset Renewal and Transfer Fund to support community groups with this. We want to work with the local communities to develop a sustainable use of these buildings long into the future.”