Start date for city’s £800,000 ‘centrepiece’
WORK is set to start in the Spring on a new £800,000 city square in the heart of Dunfermline.
Fife Council will use Scottish Government cash to transform the gap site between High Street and Queen Anne Street.
Councillor James Calder, convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said: “It’s really going to be transformative and we’re hoping work will start in Spring next year.
“It’s just a few months away until they start breaking ground so it’s really quite exciting that such a big project for Dunfermline is going to be taking place in the very near future.
“The funding was confirmed by the cabinet committee earlier this year, and since then we’ve been getting everything organised as it’s a lot of work.”
The Scottish Government gave councils money from the Place Based Investment Programme, Fife’s share was £1.9m, and in April councillors agreed to allocate the money to six projects, with the city square receiving £800,000.
Designs were approved by the area committee in December 2021 with the convener at the time, Helen Law, praising landscape architect Paul Morsley and his team for coming up with “something quite magical”.
As well as a city square for hosting farmers’ markets, performances, events and exhibitions, plans included a grassed terrace area, more planting and seating, a community orchard, a gateway feature and a community hub with public toilets and an information point.
Cllr Calder said: “The new city square is really going to make the whole High Street area a more enjoyable, nicer and more welcoming place. It will become a centrepiece for Dunfermline.
“This fund from the Scottish Government is to help improve towns and cities and this money will certainly do that.”
The project will resolve a problem more than 30 years in the making.
The gap site was once dominated by a huge Co-op department store that stood on both sides of Randolph Street. However it closed in 1990 and over the years the boarded up buildings became derelict and a prominent eyesore.
Alfred Stewart Properties Ltd bought the site in September 1999 but after losing patience with the company for their failure to redevelop the site, the council moved to demolish the buildings and pursued a compulsory purchase order in February 2006, eventually paying £3m.
The land was put up for sale, there was talk of shops, restaurants or an hotel, but those plans never came to fruition and no-one bought it.
The plans for a city square also envisage a relocated and refurbished Mercat Cross as a prominent feature, although this idea was strongly opposed by local historian Bert McEwan.
And this week Fife MSP Roz McCall raised the issue again, stating: “The Mercat Cross, which dates all the way back to 1499, is a vital piece of Dunfermline’s historic tapestry, and one which must be protected.
“Moving it would not only risk damaging the beautiful monument but would also impact the local economy.”
FIFE COUNCIL has apologised after a tenant’s home in Rosyth was “needlessly broken into” so the boiler could be serviced.
The fuming resident, who was not in at the time and has not been named, said no attempt had been made to contact them before workers forced their way in.
The complaint was upheld and the council said sorry for the blunder, which left the tenant sitting outside and waiting for new keys to arrive before they could get back into their own home.
They said: “My home was needlessly broken into today so my boiler could be serviced, 20 days before the old service was due to expire and without a single phone call or effort to contact me.
“I have had several appointments at the beginning of this year, and I call for every single one of them to say I have started a business and it’s difficult for me to be at home all day as I’m in a shop.
“I request an afternoon appointment and a phone call when the engineer is on his way as I live and work in Rosyth and can be home in less than five minutes.
“There have been no problems until the engineer failed to call me this time and the last time for this appointment.”
The shop worker added: “The only appointments I have missed are the appointments where I don’t get a phone call.
“Now, due to the fact that I never got a phone call, I’m expected to pay