COUNCILLORS have been asked if it's the best use of Fife Council resources to spend £500,000 on a footbridge at Aberdour harbour.

And one boss suggested that, with hindsight, they may have decided not to replace the crossing that was washed away by a storm in August 2020.

There's been uproar in the village at the length of time it's taken to build what would be a small bridge over the Dour Burn and it'll now be well into 2023 before it's done.

Head of roads and transportation, John Mitchell, told members of the environment, transportation and climate change scrutiny committee: "Should there have been a bigger consideration of whether there was enough improvement on the diversion routes that the public could say a 269-metre diversion was acceptable and the council wouldn't have to spend half a million pounds?

"That may not go down well with the local population but as a strategic consideration is that something we should really look at if we were considering it again?

"If you've got real pressure on resources across Fife, is that the best use of that money or is that 269m diversion suitable and can we do local enhancements so that locals might think this is actually do-able?"

The bridge – the route links with the Fife Coastal Path – will be built but it's going to cost more money, £476,000.

It will take up to three months to put in place with work hopefully starting in April or May, although the extra funding needs to come from the capital budget, which is set in February.

The saga was referred to the scrutiny committee, where officers were asked to explain why it had taken so long.

Mr Mitchell said: "Sometimes with a smaller bridge there are as many technical and design requirements as a bigger bridge.

"What the team was looking to do was put in a proper solution that met all the different requirements of all the different bodies.

"It's a team that's relatively small, a lot of pressure from different areas and at this time, in August 2020, there was 400-odd flooding incidents across Fife, there were landslips and the team was pushed and pulled here and there.

"There was a viable alternative route that increased the length of that route by 269m and so in terms of looking at it as a priority and risk approach, they felt that was not unreasonable. People may have a different opinion.

"From the public's perception, it's difficult to appreciate the length of time civil engineering projects take and the different approval requirements.

"Land purchase necessary to build the bridge was only secured in November 2022.

"This is something we meet across a range of projects in Fife. It's very time-consuming."

Convener Cllr Jane Ann Liston said: "I notice most of the long delays were not in Fife Council's control.

"The design consultant took more than a year, the marine licence application, for some inexplicable reason, took just over six months.

"The council didn't control these things at all. We were in other people's hands unfortunately."

A report said the council faced "various planning and environmental constraints" and that access over private land was required.

Lead consultant on flooding, shoreline and harbours, Dr Rick Haynes said: "To use the phrase, 'perfect storm' wouldn't be incorrect.

"We have lost a bridge to a storm event and the context of where the bridge is has every designation we could possibly think about to deal with in terms of engagement with those agencies."