The efforts by a north east Fife environmental group to tackle climate change have been given a ministerial seal of approval.

Stewart Stevenson, Scottish minister for transport, infrastructure and climate change, visited Letham Village Hall to see the work of the community-led North Howe Transition Toun.

Mr Stevenson — a former pupil of Bell Baxter High School — praised the work of the group, which has received more than £200,000 from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund.

The money is being used to fund projects aimed at encouraging energy efficiency, sustainable transport and sustainable food production.

Established in March 2008, the North Howe Transition Toun area takes in the communities of Letham, Monimail, Bow of Fife, Collessie, Giffordtown and Charlottetown.

One of the UK's first transition towns, it now forms part of a growing global network of similar initiatives that began in Ireland in response to the twin challenges of climate change and the depletion of the world's oil reserves.

Read the original article in The Fife Herald Published Date: 29 July 2010 By Liz Rougvie