DEVELOPERS remain hopeful that site works for the £600 million western expansion of Dunfermline will begin early next year.

The team at Stirling Developments are currently working towards a planning application for the first phase of development at Broomhall with Fife Council.

The firm submitted two applications recently for signage at their South-West Dunfermline site.

The signs are intended to advertise the commercial development opportunities that the site has to offer as it has consent for 68 hectares of commercial development.

The company want to explore opportunities with interested parties to give them a better understanding of the market requirements and subsequent Broomhall development plans going forward.

Peter Stirling, managing director, said: “We are currently working with Fife Council to develop a first phase for the development which will include residential and business opportunities.

"We remain hopeful that site works can commence early next year.”

Stirling Developments told the Press in April that the previous 12 months had been "challenging" but they were confident that the Broomhall site would weather the economic pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 2,000 houses and two primary schools are to be built on Lord Elgin’s land as part of plans but progress has been slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Stirling Developments, which is based in Dunfermline, acquired the land and development rights for the Earl of Elgin’s Broomhall estate and said the massive housebuilding project to the south-west of the town would create more than 7,000 jobs.

As well as new homes which will house around 4,700 people, the proposals include two primary schools, shops, employment and commercial units, healthcare facilities, parks and green space, with the development period spanning 25-30 years.

The plans had been on the table for around four years before being approved, despite 56 letters of objection, by councillors on the west planning committee.

Infrastructure includes £8.7m contributions for transport improvements, such as the western distributor road, and a £17m bypass to serve the vast new housing estates and take traffic away from the centre of Dunfermline. It will link the King Malcolm roundabout to Rumblingwell, via Grange Drive, Grange Road and Limekilns Road and it will go west off Coal Road, linking to Pittencrieff Street and William Street.

The plans include road bridges over the Fife Circle and Dunfermline to Alloa railway lines.

The developer will also be asked to help fund traffic lights on Pitreavie roundabout, an additional lane on the A823 and upgrades to the Rumblingwell/William Street and William Street/Pittencrieff Street junctions.

Before the first primary school is built – the council said previously it would be needed by 2023 with the second required by 2035 – the children from the new estates will attend Pitreavie Primary School.

As a result, the developer will pay £425,000 towards an extension at Pitreavie Primary, £18m for the two primary schools and provide contributions towards capacity risks at secondary schools in Dunfermline and St Margaret’s RC Primary School.

They will also set aside land for a Rosyth bypass and the Charlestown rail chord.