FIFE Council have been told to show some ambition and look at building a "national swimming centre of excellence" at the Inverkeithing High School site.

The land will become available in the summer of 2026 - when the new £85m replacement opens in Rosyth - and there is backing for a new sports hub and swimming pool there.

The most expensive of six options put forward by officers, it would cost around £28m and there is a warning of the significant financial challenges the council are facing, but others have argued they should make a real splash and think even bigger.

SNP councillor Derek Glen said: "As well as the swimming clubs and the learn to swim programme, there's also social swimming for fitness and families and health.

"I think the challenge here is to see whether we're being ambitious enough in rising to meet the demands of our community and of our residents across all three of these uses."

He continued: "I think the opportunities are there, within the budget envelope we're talking about, to establish a national swimming centre of excellence that would put Fife on the map.

"It would be within an hour of 80 per cent of the population of Scotland and would deliver on all three of those cases for the pools.

"You're probably talking about a two-pools solution."

SNP councillor Derek Glen said a 'national swimming centre of excellence' could be built in Inverkeithing. SNP councillor Derek Glen said a 'national swimming centre of excellence' could be built in Inverkeithing. (Image: Fife Council) READ MORE: 'Backstabbing' councillors blamed in Inverkeithing sports hub row

Giving the example of the partnership with the Scottish Government and others that delivered a "state of the art" Dunfermline Learning Campus, he went on: "The challenge now is where you source that funding and now to build a coalition, a partnership of intent that will be able to deliver it."

It's not yet clear what will happen with the Inverkeithing High site and six options for future community-use and sports facilities in West Fife were agreed, after a 13-10 vote, at the cabinet committee on Wednesday.

The school currently has a well used, if ageing, pool and there is concern that that it could be closed and not replaced.

Cllr Glen said: "We don't want to get to the stage where we end up with under-provision and waiting lists that effectively stop people putting their kids through lessons.

"That would store up a timebomb for the future where we have a generation of parents that haven't learned to swim."

There are now no school pools in Dunfermline, the replacement buildings for Queen Anne, Dunfermline, St Columba's and Woodmill did not include swimming provision, and there are no 'wet-side' facilities at Dunfermline Learning Campus either.

The Cowdenbeath pool is currently closed for an £8m refurbishment, the pool at Lochgelly High has been shut for repairs and Cllr Patrick Browne said the pool at The Wing in Inverkeithing has been mostly closed over the past three weeks, "basically because it is falling apart".

A pool was also not in the plans for the new high school at Rosyth Fleet Grounds, although it is now one of the six options agreed by the committee.

A report by Paul Vaughan, head of communities and neighbourhoods, said the Carnegie Leisure Centre in Dunfermline has "capacity issues" every day of the week and while activities at Woodmill pool were able to be incorporated after it closed in the summer, it wouldn't be able to accommodate learners, social swimmers and clubs that currently go to Inverkeithing.

There are around 2,800 people taking lessons with Fife Sports and Leisure Trust's award-winning Learn to Swim programme in West Fife but, across the Carnegie, Cowdenbeath, Inverkeithing and Lochgelly, more than 700 people are on waiting lists.

Mr Vaughan explained that Scottish Swimming do not get funding to build pools and Sportscotland's maximum capital grant is £200,000.

He said: "The national facilities tend to be based around the Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh and the main performance centre at Stirling University."

And he added: "We haven't explored many other additional options for funding at this point, partly because we would require to narrow down what we would actually be looking at and what the contribution from the council would be."