Waterfront flats and units plan rejected by council

PLANS to transform a town’s waterfront have been thrown out by planners.

The multi-million-pound blueprint for 55 flats and commercial units on a site at the western end of Kirkcaldy Esplanade has been rejected by councillors at a meeting of Fife Council’s central and west planning committee.

The three blocks of flats and commercial units, earmarked for a vacant site to the south east of the Morrisons supermarket on Kirkcaldy Esplanade, next to Seafield Beach, had been proposed by Broughty Ferry-based developers Grant Road Properties.

Officers had advised the project be rejected, claiming it would have an adverse effect on schools’ provision, which does not have sufficient capacity.

A lack of measures to promote the use of sustainable transport, the impact on existing road infrastructure, the shortfall in communal car parking spaces and absence of electric vehicle charging points were also concerns.

Councillor John Beare said the proposal had few, if any, redeeming features, adding the design was more akin to a commercial development than residential.

Grant Road Properties had argued the residential-led mixed-use development would act as a “catalyst” for wider redevelopment and urged councillors to back the plan.

“The development has been carefully designed in response to the site’s immediate context and the surrounding townscape in this part of the town, and provides a new urban block with appropriate scale, massing and quality of materials,” the company added.

Kirkcaldy Central councillor Alistair Cameron voiced concerns the lack of school places in the area was effectively halting any regeneration of the site when the town most needed it.

His concerns were echoed by Councillor Mino Manekshaw, who said the lack of school provision effectively declared a “development blight” for that part of the town.

CHILDREN are being encouraged to share their artwork and writing with older people in and around the city through a new arts project.

Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) and Dundee Pensioners’ Forum have teamed up to send out children’s artwork as part of the forum’s fortnightly newsletter.

It is hoped this will help connect people across the city and say hello to older people who have been isolated and lonely during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dorothy McHugh, of the forum, said: “We are keen to encourage intergenerational engagement.

A FORMER soldier has been sent back to prison after he committed a string of offences months after he was freed.

Richard Beech attacked a man and made threats in May this year after serving a four-year jail sentence for violence against former partners imposed on him in 2017.

Beech was also ordered to be under supervision for a further two years, and his licence under the extended sentence is due to expire in 2022.

Beech, 36, was brought back before a judge at the High Court in Edinburgh and made the subject of a prison return order for 365 days from today. The court could have sent him back to jail for a maximum period of 668 days.

Lady Scott, who originally jailed him at the High Court for the physical abuse of former partners, told Beech that she was not going to return him for the full period available to her.

The judge told him: “I consider an order to return is appropriate and for a substantial period.”

But she added that she took into account his personal circumstances and “ongoing mental health difficulties”.