A LONG-RUNNING wrangle between the owners of Halbeath Retail Park and Fife Council over a "ransom strip" of land appears to be drawing to an end.

The sale of part of their site to the local authority is set to pave the way for the Northern Link Road (NLR), a £20 million-plus bypass to serve the new housing estates in the north of the city, and a road bridge over the Fife Circle.

It could also see work starting finally on Royal London Mutual Insurance Society's nine-shop extension to their retail park – including a Lidl supermarket, an M&S Foodhall and the promise of 200 jobs – which was approved by councillors in February 2017.

There's been deadlock for years but last month they started ticking off the conditions to be complied with before they can begin and now an application to amend the landscaping part of their plans "to omit land to be sold to Fife Council in the north-east" of the site, has been approved.

On the amended drawings it now says "proposed soft landscape works to this area omitted due to council purchase".

And a council report confirmed: "The area of land omitted is the proposed site of the Halbeath Railway Crossing. It was proposed that a piece of public art would be located in this area but as a result, the public art will be moved south of the access road."

There's been little to no progress on the retail park extension as, although the council granted full planning permission in June 2016, they also asked Royal London for £703,000 to pay for transport improvements in the area.

They didn't want to pay the sum but they did have a bargaining chip, something the council wanted, the piece of land which is needed for the NLR.

The bypass will start right next to the retail park, cross the railway line and head north, bypassing the city centre and coming out eventually in the west of Dunfermline at Milesmark.

The stretch of Kingseat Road up to the level crossing is owned by Royal London and the council's initial attempts to buy it came to nothing.

Back in 2017, they indicated initially they wouldn’t pay the money for transport improvements but would instead offer to “guarantee access to the land” for the road.

Royal London then changed their mind and said they would make the financial contribution, but they withdrew the offer of access to the land for the NLR.

A council planner described this as "disappointing" and said at the time: “The offer of access to the land would have helped to realise the delivery of the northern distributor road sooner which could help alleviate congestion on the roads throughout Dunfermline earlier to the benefit of the public and the delivery of strategic aims of the proposed FIFEplan.”

In 2018, Royal London appealed against paying the transport contribution but the council rejected it.

However, in 2020, the local authority did agree to a change to the payment schedule.

Planning permission, which says work must start within three years, has been extended twice for a year due to COVID. Work must now get under way by May 2023.