DOBBIES Garden Centre have applied to Fife Council for permission to extend their site in Dunfermline.

The plans for their Fife Leisure Park store would allow them to increase the size of the retail area and improve the farm shop and foodhall area.

A statement on behalf of Dobbies said the garden centre had been open for more than 10 years and had become a "very popular, high-quality visitor experience destination".

It added: "This application seeks to continue this use and improve the facilities and enhance customer experience by adding a modest extension adjacent to the present warehouse store, to increase the internal retail area and also to replace the existing warehouse with a new enclosure within the existing canopied external sales area.

"The proposed improvements will provide additional space to create a spacious, pleasant and effective retail environment to provide a better choice of goods within the existing established range of goods on offer.

"It will also provide scope for improving the farm shop/foodhall area, all designed to improve the customer experience, maintain the viability of the unit in the long term and provide further employment opportunities."

Dobbies said the planning application followed a company review of the Dunfermline garden centre and feedback from customers.

The store, which occupies a site of around three hectares, has undergone a refurbishment recently as the first phase of the improvements.

If approved, the new extension would be built on the southern side of the centre, the site of the present storage yard, and would become a retail area.

It would connect with the present warehouse, which would also become retail space, with a new and smaller warehouse created within the external sales area at the back of the store.

The planning statement added: "In the last few years, some retail space was lost with the provision of the internal children's soft play area which has proved to be a popular draw with families.

"The proposed extension will therefore restore the previous loss of area and then add to the general square footage available."