Plans halted for 19 Fife Council affordable homes in Crombie

Brian Goodall said he hoped "lessons have been learned" after the proposals got all the way through the Fife Council planning process and received consent before being blocked.

Work on the site off Ordnance Road was due to get underway in November 2022, then the summer of 2023, and following further delays council officers told local councillors last November that it should start "imminently".

But not a brick has been laid and a year on Cllr Goodall said: "On the affordable housing programme, there was real disappointment in Crombie where we had a proposed development there that had actually gone through the entire planning process.

"The whole village was aware of what was happening, with 19 new affordable homes to be delivered on site, only to discover after planning permission had been granted that the development wasn't going ahead as the appropriate permissions weren't in place with the MoD who have access rights to the site.

A development of 19 new homes in Crombie - approved by Fife Council more than three years ago - now won't go ahead. (Image: Google Maps) READ MORE: Louis the peacock: Back home and plans for his future

"That was a really disappointing to the community and devastating for those on the housing list who wanted a home in that area."

He added: "I know there are other developments going on in the area but it strikes me as very strange that we get through the entire planning process before all the ducks were in a row.

"I hope lessons have been learned from that and it won't happen again."

In Crombie there was due to be four two-bedroom flats, three two-bedroom bungalows and 12 houses – two two-bedroom homes, eight three-bedroom properties and two four-bedroom houses – built on the Kinniny House site.

Planning permission was granted by the west and central planning committee in May 2021.

The applicant at that time was Our Street Ltd, of Lochgelly, but that later changed to First Endeavour Ltd.

Across a number of sites in Fife, the company was to build more than 200 affordable homes for the council but they hit financial trouble and First Endeavour went into liquidation in May.

At the South and West Fife area committee last week, Cllr Goodall went on: "We could have had an additional 19 properties in Crombie on this list of new-build properties that should have been going ahead and didn't.

"When you think of the size of a village like Crombie, 19 properties, that's really significant.

"There's only about 200 doors in the village, which I know from all the leafleting I've done there over the years."

When plans for the affordable homes development were first tabled they weren't universally popular with 18 locals submitting a list of objections.

One wrote: "We don't know who or what we might get into our village."

Another resident had said: "Crombie is a village with very few amenities, including no shops, extremely limited public transport, no school, no post office etc.

"Given this, as well as the recent expansion of the village already through a development making use of the school site, is this the best place for 19 further houses to be built?"

The MoD have been contacted for comment.