A UK community, described as already living in a “ghost town” have been dealt another blow after it was announced a major employer in the area was shutting down in the New Year.
On the edge of a major petrochemical plant, this struggling community, home to about 12,000 people, already has an unemployment rate of 8.7% and its once vibrant, busy High Street has already lost key retailers and has many empty shops.
Now the former mining town has been dealt another blow with the news that the chemical plant is to close in February.
On the streets, 66-year-old cleaner Peter Dunn told the BBC: “This area is really struggling. There’s a lot of shops already closed so I think this is bad news.”
The town’s High Street has suffered in recent years with the loss of key retailers such as Farmfoods in September and Iceland in 2023. The street also lost its branch of the Bank of Scotland in July and a number of the shops are boarded up.
Situated on the edge of Exxon Mobil’s petrochemical plant at Mossmorran in Fife lies the struggling community of Cowdenbeath.
Exxon Mobil has said there was not a “competitive future” for the site, confirming 179 directly-employed jobs would be at risk, along with 250 contractors.
Stephens Bakery, which has been open in Cowdenbeath almost as long as the 40-year-old Mossmoran Plant, manages to keep going but its assistant manager Susan Marshall said the site’s closure was “devastating”.
She said: “We have a lot of customers from Mossmorran and we get a lot of orders for conferences and meetings, so this will affect our business. This will affect not just us but the whole street.
“People come to the high street, not that there are many shops left for them, for their lunch and we have our regular customers from Mossmorran. A lot of shops have shut here and now the Mossmorran workers might have to move away from the area but we’ll just have to cope.
Shopper Audrey Haldane, 66, who lives three miles away said Cowdenbeath was her local area for shopping, added: “The shopkeepers here have seen the highs and lows.
“The lowest has been the banks closing and companies closing and leaving the High Street such as Farmfoods, Woolworths, all these bigger named shops.
Angela Lawrie, who owns the town’s Delmor estate agent, said she was upset for the workers who would lose their job and believes the closure could mean people will have to go out of the area for work, meaning they would have to sell their house or downsize.”It might boost business due to the fact some people might need to sell,” she said.
The Mossmoran plant though has not been without controversy. Flaring, a process to burn off excess gas at the plant, has caused years of noise and light pollution.
Indeed Exxon Mobil was fined £176,000 for six days of continuous flaring in April 2019, which caused houses to shake and generated hundreds of complaints.
Kirsty Archbold, who lives in nearby Kelty, said she felt relieved by the closure.”I do feel sorry for the staff, 100%, but for the safety side you do often worry about it because you can sometimes feel the ground shudder so there is something very uncomfortable about it.”
John Stagg, a 47-year-old father-of-three has worked at Mossmorran for three years as a scaffolder.
He said: “We had been hearing rumours for the past couple of months about the possible sale of the site but the suddenness of the news has made me feel really quite angry and shocked.
“It is looking increasingly likely I will have to travel for work away from home, which is not an ideal situation.It’s going to affect Christmas and the emotional impact is going to cause stress and anxiety.”