Rosyth: Bid to flatten the Sportsman Bar and build homes

Scott Adamson, of City Hotels Ltd in Dunfermline, claims he is left with no choice but to redevelop the Burnside Street site. 

A building condition statement said: “The general overall condition is poor. There is no doubt that the building is in part structurally unsafe, and the remaining parts are in poor condition.”

Mr Adamson said he was advised by his bank that it would not lend money to a prospective buyer to current market conditions. 

The Sportsman Bar in Rosyth has been closed since 2019. (Image: Newsquest)

“Generally across the UK the licenced trade and hospitality sector is facing considerable economic and social challenges: the rising cost of goods, the rising cost of energy, the cost for maintenance, rising cost against the minimum cash-takings from the premises can only mean decline and eventual closure of premises,” a planning statement said. 

“Mr Adamson was previously advised by his bank that it would reject assistance to any prospective buyer of the public house in the current market volatility.” 

A previous plan to demolish the pub and build flats was submitted in December last year but then withdrawn in March.

The City Hotels group owns several licensed premises across Fife, including the Gladyer Inn in Rosyth, the Adamson Hotel in Crossford and Lourenzo's nightclub in Dunfermline.

The statement added: “He is confident about the viability of many of other licenced premises under his control, but he is not confident the Sportsman Bar can remain a viable licenced premises. 

"The Sportsman Bar operated as a pub under lease, but the tenant 'faced decline in trade.'  It ultimately closed its doors in October 2019 and Mr Adamson began his search for a new tenant. 

"However, a marketing report from commercial estate agency, Drysdale and Co, concluded that there is 'no realistic prospect of ever successfully finding a new occupier in the trade.'

“On the basis that no viable tenant has come forward, Mr Adamson has chosen to re-develop the site as the only means to enable the site is arrested from further decline and that the building – which is in a poor condition – can be safely replaced with a modern new building which accounts for up to date building regulations, mitigates against the flood risk and protects the integrity of nearby tree root systems, which have started to cause underside damage to the existing property.

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 “Rosyth is an area of Fife where housing stock is desired – with very limited available properties for sale or rent, which offer the local amenities that this development proposes. 

“The existing building’s services infrastructure (plumbing, heating, electrics, etc) are dated and in serious need of modernisation and upgrading.

"It would require significant financial resources to renovate the open house to be brought up to current building standards, which would pose an exceptionally high risk venture for a developer in the current economic market.

"Such a financial investment would be much better utilised to create modern housing also is a much lower-risk development venture.”