A long-held dream of councillors and business leaders, a plaza on wasteland behind City Chambers was first mentioned in 2006 to breathe new life into that end of the city.

The plans included an underground multi-storey car park and a hotel, with a square at street level boasting bars, restaurants and shops.

Funding has always been the main stumbling block but Fife Council commissioned architect Malcolm Fraser to draw up a concept scheme to see if it was feasible.

The square next to Pittencrieff Park would also tie in with the historic attractions of the city and he gave a recent presentation to the City of Dunfermline area committee.

Former committee chair Councillor Joe Rosiejak said, “It’s a fabulous idea and it would really transform the whole of that part of the town.

“The problem has always been the money. However, the presentation was very good and gave me a glimmer of hope that finances could be found.

“It would have to be a partnership but if they got that backing it could work.” He added, “It would be mega money and would need someone like Waitrose to come in as the anchor store.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts. It’s always been pie in the sky but maybe now we’ve got some of the ingredients ready.” Current chair Councillor Helen Law said, “It’s a fantastic plan but I’m not sure how realistic it is – it needs a big hotel chain or someone like that to come in.

“If they could look at another way to make it stack up financially, such as scaling it back, perhaps it could work.

“It would be great for the town and no-one is against the principle but we’ve asked the officers to make the plans more realistic.

"The financial position keeps changing and the economy is seemingly on the up but I don’t know if that would make a change to this project.” Architect Ken Oliver, a former chairman of Dunfermline City Centre Management (now Dunfermline Delivers), came up with the idea for a square and explained it to the Press in May 2006.

“At the back of the City Chambers there’s a huge hole in the ground with broken drains, a few trees, crumbling walls and outbuildings and rats,” he said at the time.

“It would be sensible to place the underground car park there, in a discrete fashion like they do in Europe, and at street level we would create a city square overlooking the Glen.

“It would be sheltered by the existing buildings and there would be the potential to build on the cafe culture and put in almost permanent market stalls.’ Mr Oliver, who co-founded the Dunfermline firm Oliver and Robb, never saw the plan come to fruition – he died in 2009 – but many are keen to see it happen.

The council’s property investment and development manager, Ronnie Hair, also briefed councillors and said, “The local plan supports mixed-use development there but the reality is it’s very difficult to make it happen without significant grant funding or cross-subsidy.

“Our view is that wasn’t going to be realistic in the short-term but we propose to review it if and when there’s stronger market interest.” He continued, “Ideally, we would like to see that area regenerated but you can only work within the realms of what is viable.

“There was an acceptance that we have to work with the resources we have and the amount of money to make it viable is prohibitively high.

“That’s not to say it would never happen. It would be fantastic but it’s very difficult to get funding for a project like that at this point in time.

“To be fair the councillors are keen for this to happen if it can and that was the reason the council commissioned Malcolm.

“We now have the basis of how such a scheme could work in practice.”