The River Park | The Leven Programme

We are working to deliver an accessible, attractive and biodiverse public park for the local communities of Levenmouth, as well as visitors to the area, that also provides additional off-road active travel links to the new rail stations and connects the on-road active travel network to the river.

The next step in delivering the River Park project is made possible with a funding award of almost £250,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. This will support a development phase of the project, ahead of a total proposed funding package of over £3million.

Thanks to National Lottery players and other funders noted below, we are able to develop detailed plans for creating two river park 'gardens' at neglected site along the River Leven, enhancing the environment around new active travel routes and creating a safe and welcoming space for communities. The eventual project will also provide multi-functional spaces for recreation, play and sport, outdoor community learning and growing, and a green skills academy.

This project is also supported by funding from Sustrans Scotland and Transport Scotland through the Places for Everyone programme, Diageo, SEPA, Green Action Trust via the Scottish Government Nature Network funding, and National Lottery Awards for All. The funding we have secured will cover the development year of the River Park project.

For more information on this project, scroll down to 'Progress on the River Park'.

Overall ambition for the River Park

Six themed gardens have been designed along the river, built on areas of land that are currently abandoned and/or in poor condition, focusing on local heritage and community need identified through consultation.

These will consist of:

Methil Garden, which will be a space for revealing the heritage of the river.
Burn Mill Garden, which will be a space for active exploration of the river.
Creosote Garden, which will be a space for communities to meet, grow and celebrate the river. A new name for this garden will be codeveloped with communities.
Iron Brig Garden, which will be a space for playfulness and discovery along the river.
Cameron Bridge Garden, which will be a space that improves natural habitat for important species.
Docks Garden, which will be a space celebrating the navel heritage of the area.

The map below details the overall plan for the River Park, and where the gardens would be located. Click on the image to view full size.

Our animation presents a summary of the River Park concept design proposals - click here to view it!

River Leven masterplan

We commissioned an urban and landscape design practice to deliver a masterplan for the Leven catchment. The Levenmouth Active Travel and river Park Concept Design Masterplan Report presents both a collation of existing data and suggested design proposals.

The report is split into four sections:

Setting the scene, provides a broad background and overview of existing relevant information to the project.
Telling the story, describes the narrative process of shaping the proposals including historical analysis and community engagement.
Illustrating the proposals, reveals the concept design masterplan for the River Leven Park and more detailed site studies at the garden scale.
Looking forward, outlines additional threads to be considered and further developed during Stage 3 - Detailed design.

The masterplan was funded by Sustrans Scotland and Transport Scotland through the Places for Everyone programme and was published in November 2020.

Progress on the River Park

As part of progressing our River Leven masterplan, we have now secured funding that will cover the development year of the River Park project.

This project is being led by Green Action Trust in collaboration with Fife Coast & Countryside Trust, Fife Council, NHS Fife, Historic Environment Scotland, SEPA, and our Community Steering Group, led by Coalfields Regeneration Trust.

Year one will see the development of plans and designs including the following:

Design of the Burn Mill and 'Creosote' Gardens, with a new name for the latter codeveloped with communities.
Development of a Community Engagement and Empowerment plan with our Community Steering Group.
Design of a Community Hub at one of the gardens.
Plans for exploring industrial and natural heritage including mills, heritage trails and river-edge platforms, boardwalks and walkways.
Piloting of a local training programme.
Development of projects including Explore Outdoors (involving outdoor learning and play for school pupils) and a Green Health Partnership (working with NHS Fife to help people benefit from our natural environment).
Creation of Nature Networks including woodland management and creation, wetland enhancements (which reduce flooding impacts) and wildflower meadows. Design development for the Nature Network is now complete and you can access an interactive Storymap of the exciting proposals by clicking here.
The development phase of the Nature Network was funded by Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot.

We will then apply for the further four years of delivery funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and others to enact these plans.

The activities included in this project have been informed by our masterplan and the Behaviour Change Action Plan which was codeveloped with communities. We’d like to continue to work closely with communities throughout this project. If you live or work locally and would like to be involved, please get in touch – Contact us.