BUILDERS have agreed to pay almost £600,000 as part of a deal to put up 85 homes in an area of Dunfermline targeted by fire-raisers. 

BDW Trading Ltd, part of Barratt Homes, and Walter Bowie and Son received planning permission in March to develop the land at South Fod Farm. 

It will see old barns and outbuildings, repeatedly set on fire over the past year, knocked down in a move supported by Police Scotland. 

Permission was subject to a legal agreement being reached and a deal was struck last Tuesday with Fife Council. 

The applicants will pay £513,870 – three separate instalments of £171,290 will be paid prior to the occupation of the 1st, 25th and 50th houses – to help fund new classrooms. 

This is because, together with an adjacent plot next to Lynebank Hospital where BDW have planning permission for another 114 homes, the development will create a ‘capacity risk’ at local primary schools. 

The new homes will be a stone’s throw from the award-winning Carnegie Primary School but families moving in won’t be able to send their kids to this school as it’s already full and can’t be extended any more. 

Instead, they’ll be in the catchment for Touch PS and the money will go towards funding a three-classroom, £1.5 million extension at Touch. 

The applicants will also pay £80,600 as a strategic transport fund contribution and agreed that 21 of the new properties will be affordable homes. 

When the plans were first submitted, Police Scotland said they “would welcome” development at South Fod Farm. 

Over the past year, together with the nearby Calais Muir Woods, there were 14 deliberate fires in the area and the force received 86 calls about youths causing trouble at the derelict site. 

The new properties will be a range of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, all two storeys in height, and a mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced units. 

The site is 4.1 hectares, it’s south of Lynebank Hospital and east of Linburn Road, and includes a category B-listed farmhouse – which is not included in the plans – and a number of barns and outbuildings, which will be demolished. 

Three accesses were proposed, including the upgrade of the existing farm track that connects to Linburn Road.

There was considerable opposition to the plans with 49 letters of objection, including one from Touch and Garvock Community Council and one containing a petition with 90 signatures that requested that the farm track be retained for pedestrians and cyclists and “limited vehicular traffic”. 

Among the concerns were additional noise, pollution, traffic and congestion for existing residents, as well as loss of privacy, views, open space, trees and the impact on property values.