DEVELOPERS building 350 houses on land to the east of Kincardine will pay over £3.3 million in community contributions.

A legal agreement was reached with Fife Council and the site will include a business park, neighbourhood park, a small supermarket and recycling centre.

Construction may finally begin in the coming months for a project that began over a decade ago in 2004.

Developers blamed negotiations with third parties and the collapse of the housing market for stalling their progress.

Glasgow law firm Montagu Evans LLP have been acting on behalf of the applicants, named as Comstock East Ltd, Mr P McLaren and Mr G Fairley, who are joint parties who wish to develop the site.

Most of the community contribution is for education provision. The payment has increased from £1,650 per housing unit, the sum the council asked for in 2014, to £6,300, adding more than £2.2m to the costs.

Donald Campbell, chair of Kincardine Community Centre, said: “The development has split the village. Some people want the area to be kept as it is and others want to bring more people here.

“However, infrastructure is needed. Lack of public transport is an ongoing problem in West Fife. It’s infuriating seeing a rail line just sitting there and we will be campaigning for a Dunfermline to Alloa line, which are politicians are in favour of.

“I am bit puzzled about the funds for education. I would like to know what the education contribution will be going to, will they build a new school?

“The primary school is under capacity at the moment, but it needs work. We also need a new health centre, but we have not heard anything about that in months.”

Developers have agreed that at least a quarter of the 350 homes will be affordable housing and the payments will be phased. For the provision of a business park, a sum of £800,000 will need to be paid by the landowner, as well as £200,000 for community facilities and £50,000 for the extension of the Kincardine cemetery.

At their own expense developers will have to build a neighbourhood park, ensure landscaping works are carried out and provide a small supermarket or general convenience store that can be marketed for sale.

Fife Council have also made sure that a new local access road will be built between Walker Street and Toll Road and a recycling centre will be included on the site.

An existing overhead power line running across the development will need to be relocated.

In a planning statement, the applicants said they faced substantial engineering problems when they started on the site and were hampered by the collapse of the housing market in 2007.

They added it wasn’t until 2014 that the recovery of land price became apparent. Meanwhile, negotiations have been ongoing with Iberdrola (parent company of Scottish Power) since 2005 to divert the powerline and it wasn’t until 2015 that both parties were able to agree a solution.