A PLAN to build 56 homes in a Dalgety Bay will save jobs and help prevent “the wider decline” of Hillend Industrial Estate.

That’s the pitch from Springfield Properties who want to demolish the former Cemtron works and replace it with homes and a business/commercial unit.

Fife Council are against housing development on Hillend and Donibristle industrial estates but have been told the land will lie empty and derelict otherwise.

Internet TV firm Exterity Ltd currently use part of the 2.4-hectare site on Ridge Way but Springfield says that Exterity want to relocate.

Their planning statement says, “The proposal includes specific provision for business/commercial premises.

“This will ensure that the last existing tenant on the site will be retained within Dalgety Bay, safeguarding 45-50 existing jobs and facilitating the creation of additional jobs in the future.” It also warns that, should planning permission be refused, Exterity could leave the town and “market evidence indicates that the existing premises will remain vacant and slip further into a state of disrepair – increasing levels of derelict land and buildings and contributing to the wider decline of the estate in the process.” Springfield said the offices and stores on the site were more than 100 years old and were in a “poor state of repair”.

They said the larger workshop, erected in the 1970s, is also in poor condition and had last been used as an auction house but had lain empty for a number of years.

The planning statement said there was “no market demand” for the existing premises and redeveloping for business/industrial use was “not a viable proposition”.

Instead, Springfield proposes four flats and 52 houses – a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes – and a 10,000 sq ft business unit with 24 car parking spaces.

They argued that there was a “major shortfall” in housing land supply and that Fife Council faced a “critical requirement to bring additional housing land into the supply as soon as possible to meet past, current and future housing needs”.

Last month, the chair of Dalgety Bay community council, Colin McPhail, said they were against the housing development.

He said they believed the land should be kept for employment use but warned there was a precedent.

In 2008, a decision by Fife Council to refuse permission for 80 homes on the old OCLI site in the industrial estate was overturned by Scottish ministers.

The council previously admitted that areas of the Donibristle and Hillend industrial estates were obsolete, vacant and derelict but pointed out that seven of the top 100 businesses in Fife, as well as 120 firms and more than 2000 employees, were based there.

They’re hopeful an action plan – including new signs, branding, landscape and maintenance improvements, as well as a running track, an orchard and allotments – could make the area more attractive to firms.

A Business Improvement District is also under consideration.