ROSYTH Community Council has expressed "anger and frustration" at the continued lack of progress on the town's waterfront site.

In a statement, they've called on all parties to forget the politics and pull together to realise the potential of a site "which may have the most iconic water gateway in the world".

Arguments have raged for more than a decade about the best way forward for Rosyth Waterfront with clashes between landowners, politicians and Fife Council about how it should be developed.

And some of the locals have clearly had enough, with the community council stating: "We urge all political parties, the private and public sector, to push aside individual interests and to embrace a collaborative approach to developing a site which will be an asset to Scotland, Europe and the world.

"The site offers a strategic gateway to all areas of Scotland, Europe and countries all over the world, through the use of road, rail and sea links.

"Unfortunately, little progress has been made to capitalise on the skills, qualities and benefits which the site so clearly demonstrates and with the near completion of the aircraft carriers project (at Rosyth Dockyard), the threat of increased unemployment once again looms."

The waterfront site is 600 acres of port and development land, predominantly in the ownership of Scarborough Muir Group (SMG), Forth Ports and Babcock.

SMG have long argued that the site should be re-zoned as suitable for mixed use and blamed the council for blocking their ambitious £500 million proposals for a quayside with a parade of shops, supermarket, hotel, cafés, bars, offices, a leisure centre and new homes.

The council and, latterly, the Scottish Government reporter, said the land should remain for port/industrial use only.

In September 2017, SMG came back with a new £250m masterplan, 'Queensferry One', for a 120-acre site next to the new bridge that could bring 8,000 jobs to the area. It included new offices, warehouses, a service station, food outlets and a 120-bed budget hotel.

The council then produced a development framework for the waterfront, with the aim of creating a ‘Gateway Rosyth’ venture to entice more business to the site, but this was criticised last December by SMG who said it had been approved hastily and their opinions had been "ignored".

The community council said: "It is our view that the development of Rosyth Waterfront has been somewhat parochial and it is time for some serious joined-up thinking on how the potential of this magnificent facility can be realised.

"We place our trust in the hands of those with the knowledge and expertise of all the above organisations and call for fresh thinking on how they recognise and maximise the full potential of a site which may have the most iconic water gateway in the world.

"We strongly urge you all to put your political differences aside and embrace our vision to work for the benefit of the country and not the few.”

Gordon Mole, Fife Council's interim chief officer for business and employability, said: "We meet all three landowners on a regular basis to assist them in developing proposals for future development on land in their ownership.

"Fife Council have an agreed planning framework which is intended to highlight flexibility within the planning system to accommodate emerging development proposals, and to demonstrate the challenges that require to be addressed in bringing forward development at the waterfront.

"We continue to look at the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal to help explore how site servicing can be accelerated to accommodate the needs of future investment."

He said they were working with economic development agencies and potential investors and added: "Earlier this year, we welcomed the news of a multi-million pound investment by Forth Ports and Cefetra to create a new Agri-hub at the Port of Rosyth.

"We are also continuing to look at the area's capability to become a major logistics hub to support construction of the new third runway at Heathrow."

A spokesperson for SMG said: “Scarborough Muir Group continue to promote our site under the Queensferry One initiative, which is reflective of the FIFEplan planning allocation.”