Kirkcaldy MSP slams Fife Council after two pensioners asked to change house door colour back to original white from Ukrainian yellow

Kirkcaldy's MSP has criticised Fife Council after two pensioners were apparently sent a range of "threatening letters and phone calls" demanding they change back the colour of their house door from Ukrainian yellow.

Housing officers have been contacting Pamela and Alan MacKinnon after the front door and under window PVC panels were painted.

The couple painted their door in an effort to brighten up the front of their council house in the town, which they have stayed in for nearly 30 years.

But the council want the colour of the door changed back to its original white.

David Torrance MSP has branded housing officers as "pedantic" and "nit-picking".

He said: "There is a whole host of issues regarding housing in Kirkcaldy at the moment and for housing officers to pursue an elderly couple over the colour of their front door is quite frankly preposterous and pedantic.

"Surely housing officers should be focusing their time and efforts tackling anti-social behaviour from nuisance tenants as well as unsightly, overgrown gardens filled with rubbish that plagues Kirkcaldy, and not bothering pensioners who meticulously look after their property."

Mr Torrance has praised Mr and Mrs MacKinnon as "exemplary tenants" in the years that they stayed in their property.

The MSP added: "For long-term council tenants to be harassed like this, for what I deem is merely nit-picking is not on, and I feel that Fife Council’s time could be better spent dealing with issues that actually matter."

Mr MacKinnon said: "After painting the door and panel we went on holiday and when we came back the following week we had multiple missed calls from a housing officer who demanded that we change the colour back to white.

"In all the years we have been council tenants we have never been instructed that we weren’t allowed to paint our door and to be pursued so determinedly has made us feel harassed.

"I’ve never had so many calls from the council in my whole life and it really makes you wonder where their priorities lie.

"I would’ve thought that the council has more pressing issues to attend to than try to bully two pensioners into restoring a door back to its former colour.

"They’re so smart on acting to this issue but it took them eight months to replace our garden fence that blew over in the wind even after repeatedly requesting for it to be fixed."

Mr Torrance further added: "This is once again an example of the council using a sledgehammer to crack a nut with their heavy-handed approach.

"Fife Council has appeared to have well and truly lost the plot!"

In a response from Fife Council, Amanda Cathrew, lead officer with Kirkcaldy Area Housing Management team, said: "We have asked the tenant to re-instate the exterior PVC fitting to the original state.

"As per our agreement with the tenant, we are responsible for decorating the outside of the property where necessary.

"This includes windows and doors."