THERE'S a real brew-haha about Costa Coffee with yet another move to extend the opening hours by two at the new Halbeath outlet.

Permission is in place for a drive-thru on land west of MacDonald Square – Burger King is set to open there too – but Fife Council said a 5am start was out of the question due to the impact on local residents.

The developer said this concern was "entirely misplaced" and submitted an appeal to the Scottish Government, and has now followed this with a second request to the local authority to allow for earlier trade.

The central and west planning committee approved the planning application, which also includes another fast food joint and three shops, in September.

Burger King and Costa Coffee will each have a drive-thru and there will be 86 parking spaces on the site, which is sandwiched between Main Street and the A907 dual carriageway.

However, at the meeting, Councillor David Coleman raised concern that planners had not included conditions about opening hours for all of the outlets.

He said: “I am concerned about the impact it will have on residents with cars going into these areas and it could be 24 hours a day.”

As a result, councillors voted 11-2 in favour of a planning condition that all units on the site would have operating hours of between 7am and 11pm.

The applicant, PVY Ltd, of Garvock Hill in Dunfermline, asked them to vary the condition to allow for earlier opening at Costa Coffee.

When this was refused on a 6-5 vote from the committee in November, against the advice of planning officers who warned that it could be overturned on appeal, the company submitted an appeal to the Scottish Government.

It is expected to be determined in March.

Gary Stenhouse, of PVY, has now followed that up with another application to the council, asking them to omit Burger King and Costa Coffee from the planning condition that restricts opening hours from 7am to 11pm.

Planning agent Joe Fitzpatrick said the council's initial report "did not propose to limit the hours of operation" of the drive-thru outlets but the time limit was extended to cover all the units on the site by the committee.

He said a noise impact assessment carried out on behalf of PVY "demonstrates that the operation, including deliveries, of the class 3 units shown as Burger King and Costa on the approved plans will not result in any adverse effect on the amenity of neighbouring sensitive premises".

In the appeal submission to the Scottish Government, Mr Fitzpatrick said: "The council’s case is primarily based on conjecture that certain noise sources have been left out of the noise assessment and that these will have an impact on residential amenity."

He said the comments from their acoustic consultant, addressing the council's statement, showed this concern was "entirely misplaced".

A spokesperson from the Halbeath Tenants and Residents Association had told the Press previously they were organising a petition and added: "Having the community woken up at five in the morning with loading and unloading of goods (is bad enough) but it is not just that, it is all the additional traffic.

“I support having all these new businesses coming to the area and revitalising it but they need to do it in a socially-responsible manner.”