DEVELOPERS wanting to build 143 homes and extend the Stephens bakery in Rosyth will have to pay out more than £1 million to Fife Council.

J Smart & Co (Contractors) PLC, from Edinburgh, received planning permission in principle last April for the proposals, off Primrose Lane, but this was dependent on a legal agreement being reached.

That was rubbed-stamped last week and they'll stump up more than £1.1m to mitigate the impact of their development.

They've been asked to pay £570,524 for strategic transport contributions, £412,556 for additional secondary school capacity and £204,884 towards the cost of a two-classroom extension at Camdean Primary School.

A more detailed planning application will be required but the indicative layout shows 143 homes – 36 will be affordable homes – with a mix of cottage flats, mid- and end-terrace homes, detached and semi-detached units.

There will be two-, three- and four-bedroom homes and a new bakery building for Stephens, with the firm indicating they'd start work next year and aim to build around 30 homes a year for five years.

At the moment, the site is 17 hectares of grassland.

Two public consultation events were held in the town in late 2017 and councillors on the west planning committee approved the plans last year.

There was one letter of support and seven objections with concerns about the impact on existing services, such as schools and health centres, loss of green space and the prospect of more traffic on Primrose Lane and in the surrounding area.

A council report indicated that the £570,524 for transport improvements would go towards the Western Distributor Road (WDR), which is expected to cost at least £17m, and a road bridge over the Fife Circle railway line near Halbeath.

The WDR is essentially a bypass which will serve the vast new housing estates at Broomhall, where more than 2,000 homes are planned to the west of Rosyth, and take traffic away from the centre of Dunfermline.

Paid for by housing developer contributions, it's set to be constructed in phases and run between the King Malcolm roundabout and Rumblingwell.

The road bridge over the railway is required for the Northern Link Road, which will cost at least £14m and serve the thousands of houses to be built in the north of the town.

The alternative east-west traffic corridor will run between the Halbeath bypass and Carnock Road.