Uncertainty s

and his fellow SNP councillor Sarah Neal.

“There have been proposals hanging over the old primary school site in Inverkeithing for many years now with little to no tangible progress made,” he said.

“We are aware of local frustration and a desire to see something happen. Co-Housing Scotland were awarded funding to prepare a business case to develop the site as a pilot project to demonstrate how co-housing could deliver on a number of local and national priorities.

“The completed business case showed the project would depend on significant public subsidy and grant funding, delivering a limited number of homes at considerable cost.”

He continued to state: “In light of the severe need for social housing locally, we can no longer support the proposals by Co-Housing Scotland and asked the council to also withdraw support.

“We have also asked the council to consider purchasing the site to develop in conjunction with the neighbouring Roods area for a large council housing project. Together, the two sites would deliver a significant number of much needed homes and would remove what has sadly become a blight on Inverkeithing.”

A spokesperson for Co-Housing Scotland commented that they were “perplexed” by Cllr Barratt’s view which he has also told him about over email that the council would withdraw support from the project.

“It is unable to give £100,000 support for the community redevelopment of a site that it sold for £400,000, but it is able to spend many millions buying and redeveloping the site itself for housing,” he said.

“That just doesn’t make sense to us and certainly seems contrary to the Council’s duties under the Community Empowerment Act and other legislation.

“In reality we know there are competing priorities within the Council, and it looks like the Council’s housing developer interest has outcompeted the wider community benefits of greenspace, health, accessibility, inclusion of diverse physical and cognitive abilities, biodiversity, housing for older people and provision of children’s nurseries.

“Knowing the site as we do af