AN old coal mine in West Fife could become home to a new golf course and hotel with a restaurant, spa, garden centre and up to 200 houses.

The proposed mixed-use development at the former Comrie Colliery site may also include holiday chalets, shops, an outdoor activity centre, a retirement village and woodlands.

Tourism and leisure are at the heart of the masterplan and the land – once described as the “largest area of post-industrial dereliction in West Fife” – has been restored to make it 'development' ready.

Key elements include 420 holiday chalets or pods, a multi-purpose hotel / hospitality / visitor centre with a restaurant / cafe / day centre.

A statement on behalf of the applicant explained: "Comrie Development Company (CDC) are proposing a new major planning permission in principle mixed-use development including leisure and tourism, employment, retail, retirement homes, residential, renewable energy, open space, landscape works, paths and associated works."

The plans also include an 18-hole par 3 golf course and clubhouse, leisure facilities such as a gym and spa and outdoor activities and watersports on a small loch.

On the employment side there could be light industrial units that are flexible enough to be sub-divided into workshops and lock-ups, with space for larger employment uses if there was a demand.

Also on the cards are a garden centre with shop and cafe, retirement village and care home, up to 200 houses, a solar farm for renewable energy, new path networks and water bodies, a central park 10 hectares in size and more than 30 hectares of woodlands.

The plans also include the possibility for "rail infrastructure".

North of the A907 between Blairhall and Saline, the sprawling site spans 495 acres. To put that in some context, one football pitch is around an acre in size.

An environmental impact assessment will be required and in the latest move CDC have asked Fife Council for a scoping opinion.

This will determine the issues that should be considered in the assessment and will include aspects such as impact on the public, biodiversity, protected species, noise, air quality, visual impact, flooding, traffic and transport and the former land use.

Mining has taken place there since at least the 1860s.

Comrie Colliery opened in 1939, it closed in 1986 and very few signs of the coal industry remain, with buildings demolished and the bings removed – the material was used to help cap the nearby ash lagoons at Low Valleyfield.

The site was formerly owned by Land Regeneration and Development Ltd who entered liquidation in 2015.

At that time the council used the bond money, put in trust to ensure restoration could still take place if the owner ran into financial difficulties, to start the process of bringing the land back into productive use.

CDC became the new owners and they completed the work.