ROSYTH Racing Pigeon Club have been given permission to land at the rugby club after Fife Council approved their plans.
They celebrate their 50th anniversary this year but members feared the flights of fancy would be grounded for good as the portable cabin they use didn't have the necessary consent.
Fair doos, the club held up their hands, apologised and last month sought retrospective planning permission to use land at the rugby club home of Rosyth Sharks, on Harley Street.
But they feared their birds were coming home to roost as the plans ruffled feathers, attracting two objections and a list of concerns, including allowing a private club to use an area of public open space.
Issues were also raised about road safety, parking, flooding, anti-social behaviour, the design and look of the cabin, loss of privacy and daylight and the possibility that the cabin may contain asbestos.
In a letter to the council, Rosyth Racing Pigeon Club secretary Gordon Cree had explained: "The club was founded in 1973 and we are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, but this could also be our last year if we don’t get planning permission.
"We are a club with very little resources and we probably would have to fold if we had to incur an additional cost in removing and scrapping the portable cabin.
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"We are also a club where the majority of the members are elderly and a few are living alone so the club provides a lifeline for those members where they can have a chat with like-minded people."
He said they weren't aware that planning permission was required – "as it had previously been located in the same place several years ago" – and that they'd needed to find a new home when the lease for the Civil Service Club grounds, which they had been using, was picked up by Dunfermline Athletic.
Around 10 metres long and a little over two metres tall, the portable cabin is across the road from Rosslyn's newsagents, it's used for meetings and no pigeons are kept in it.
Mr Cree added that they had recently decorated the outside "to make it look a bit more pleasing to the eye".
A council report addressed the points raised by objectors and concluded the plans were "very small-scale" and would have "no significant detrimental impact".
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