Chair’s Annual Report
Lee Patchell, the outgoing Chair of Gateside and District Community Association, gave the following report at the recent AGM, which was held on Thursday 13th March:
This time last year I spoke about what a busy year 2023/2024 had been with many social events and initiatives developed by a small number of hard-working members of the association to help support the elderly and less well off in our small community. Looking back on these last 12 months over the latter part of 2024 up to today that tempo almost appears leisurely by comparison. The ‘cost of living’ crisis, which is still with us as a result of a post pandemic, uncertain world continues to make budgeting hard for many.
The ongoing events I spoke of last year such as Soup Friday, Toasty Tuesday and Café Inc continue to enrich and sustain the lives of a great many local people and indeed seem to be setting the example in many other small communities in Fife, with soup and toasty days popping up all over the place where there is a community run meeting place. Most importantly however these regular events run by the association are absolutely at the heart of ensuring rural communities such as ours in and around Gateside really and genuinely are caring, inclusive and self-supporting in terms of looking after everyone in our community. So again, I feel that the distinct, small, hardworking teams of volunteers closely involved in the hard work required to maintain these events should be congratulated.
All throughout this year the association (which is every member of the Gateside and District Area) continues to thrive. We live in a vibrant, active and busy community where the vast majority of residents have no hesitation in helping to support one another. Testament to this warmth and generosity is the list of activities which we have undertaken as a community this year. As ever the list is long and the time for my report is short so although I could spend the next 30 minutes simply listing everyone involved and thanking them, we have an AGM to get to so I’ll simply mention all that we’ve done. But before doing so I will simply pass on my most heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in any of these activities you simply are amazing Gatesiders and Thank you.
We’ve run Jumble Sales, Book Sales, Car Washes and Coffee Mornings. We had an extremely well attended summer BBQ, The Gateside Gallop is back and is as popular as ever long may it continue. We held xmas events from parties for the youngest to lunch for the very eldest in our community. Hogmanay was yet again a joyous, highly energetic sugar fuelled (I’d like to say for the children but clearly many adults respond interestingly to haribo and cake too) affair bringing families into our wonderful Memorial hall. On several occasions throughout summer Fay Orr opened her garden to strangers as part of the Scottish Gardens Scheme raising over two thousand pounds which were donated to the Hall Committee for the good of the district association. And just recently people wandered into the hall just to enjoy one of Kat Wright’s bacon butties simply to have a blether.
In addition to all of the activity we plan and deliver within Gateside the incredible resource of this building (left to future generations of Gatesiders by the foresight of those who lived here in the 1920s) continues to also provide a space for several organisations to make use of, many of which benefit members of our community such as fitness classes, craft groups and music organisations.
Much effort has been spent upgrading our facilities to make the hall a more useful space. Thanks are due to our treasurer for finally bringing us into the 21st century by getting WiFi installed which is free for all to use. To Jane and Teri for working to give people nice plates to eat off and cutlery to eat it with and then a huge thanks to all involved in the recent flood protection work most notably the Crocketts, Teri and the team at Pitlochy farm.
This year we continued putting effort into improving communication with all members of our dispersed community and we have seen great success in terms of increased reach electronically and physically thanks to the help of our area representatives delivering leaflets to every dwelling within our area of responsibility.
Main Road – Derek Thomson
Bower Park – Carol Bernard
Dryside – Ashley Dowie
Burnside – Lorraine Watson
Perth Rd – Fay Orr
Gateside Mill – Gill Walker
Cowiefaulds and Wellfield – Kim Beattie
Old Town – Kate Fernando
Finally, I’ve left this topic to last not because it’s the least important but because it’s by far the biggest challenge that the village has been involved with for the last 2 years. The Park Sub-Committee led very ably by our current Vice Chair Louise Wilson and Burnside rep Lorraine Watson along with several others from the association are no in the final stages of raising £150, 000 for the renovation of the village Park. It’s no exaggeration to say that raising such a sum for a small village like ours has been a daunting challenge. However, Lousie and the team expect to hit their target by the end of this month.
In closing, the chair recognises that there are a great many people who have contributed to the community of Gateside District over the last 12 months which this report is by necessity too concise to mention and I wish to extend the Association’s deepest gratitude to everyone who has in any way given freely of their valuable free time to help in the continued health of this Scottish village a truly great place to live.