Council plea for heating scheme cash rejected

A PROPOSED multimillion-pound heating scheme in Fife has been thrown into doubt after the Scottish Government rejected a request for additional cash.

Fife Council chiefs have been delivered a funding blow in relation to the Glenrothes Heat project, which aims to use heat from RWE’s Markinch biomass plant to provide a sustainable low-carbon supply to several hundred domestic, commercial and community properties in the north of the town — including the local authority’s Fife House headquarters.

Hopes were high that a formal business case could be drawn up for approval as early as this month but the future of the project was said to be dependent on additional grant funding being secured from Holyrood.

Tender costs came in significantly higher than pre-tender estimates and the council formally asked for between £5.9 million and £7.2m to help meet a revised £29.7m lowest-estimate total price tag. However, that request has been knocked back.

Keith Winter, Fife’s executive director for enterprise and environment, admitted last month Glenrothes Heat was likely to be “financially unsustainable” without the extra funding from Edinburgh.

Despite the latest turn of events, Mr Winter said he believed some sort of pipeline network may yet be possible.

He said: “Following confirmation that our bid for additional funding from the Scottish Government has been unsuccessful, we now need to consider the options with our funding partners to deliver a reduced-scale district heating scheme.”