HALBEATH residents want a public meeting so they can have their say on plans for a new Burger King and Costa Coffee in the village.

There are concerns that Fife Council officers could wave them through without locals being able to scrutinise the proposals for the site off Main Street.

Gordon Harvey, chair of the Halbeath Environmental Improvement Group, said: "We've made a request, through one of the local councillors, that no planning application is approved until the public can attend a community meeting and see what's going on.

"The planning authority has been passing applications and approving them by electronic means but that doesn't involve the public.

"Given the contentiousness of this application, we want to see what Fife Council and the officials are going to say about it.

"Councillors themselves may also be in a better position to gauge the temperature of the public."

PVY Ltd, of Garvock Hill in Dunfermline, submitted plans earlier this year for a Burger King and Costa Coffee, both with a drive-thru, as well as another fast food outlet, three shops and 68 parking spaces on a site between Main Street and the A907 dual carriageway.

The site includes the former Halbeath filling station and the proposals would bring jobs and an empty site back into use.

The number of objections means it will go to the west and central planning committee for a decision, these meetings are currently being held online only.

Concerns include increases in noise, litter and traffic, the sale of public land to enlarge the development site – there were rumours the council could get £100,000 for selling land to PVY – and the fact the plans don't include the derelict Hotel Roma.

Mr Harvey said that, given there were already fears that the Halbeath Retail Park extension, set to include a Lidl supermarket, M&S Foodhall and seven other shops, would "kill the High Street" in Dunfermline, building Burger King, Costa and other units across the road would exacerbate the problem.

He said there were already 17 fast food venues within a mile of the site.

Work to clear the site is under way and there were concerns that old mineworkings beneath the site had been disturbed.

Local resident Sheila Chadfield said: "It's been going on for about four weeks. They've got big excavators and skips, they're clearing trees and everything. There's now a big gaping hole.

"They're digging quite deep and have taken away the storage containers, they're flattening the ground completely and I don't know why if planning permission hasn't been granted.

"Apparently, they're trying to buy a piece of land from Fife Council, where we've got community planters, so we want to know what's happening there too."

Contacted by the Press, the agent for PVY Ltd declined to comment.

Fife Council said the Coal Authority were consulted as part of the planning process and raised no objections.

They added that a date for a decision could not be confirmed as "the application is still being assessed".

Mrs Chadfield said locals were disappointed the plans did not include Hotel Roma, which has been closed since November 2006 and has become an eyesore.

The Press reported in January that there are finally plans to knock it down.

She added: "It's derelict and a dangerous place but teenagers have still been going into it, drinking and whatever, and there was a fire there just before lockdown.

"There are old mattresses and folding-type beds that have been there for at least two years and people are dumping their black bags there now too.

"Everyone just wants it gone.

"We've been on to the people in Edinburgh that hold the rights for it but they don't do anything about it. They're not interested."