A SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT reporter has agreed to consider August's "catastrophic flooding" when he looks at an appeal against a decision to refuse 125 new homes in Aberdour.

The owners of Hillside School, off Main Street, were refused permission in February due to "inadequate information" on which to take a decision.

They want to build new homes on the 134-acre site to fund the relocation of the school within the site and provide a modern, purpose-built facility.

The proposals attracted 352 objections, while a previous application in 2017 led to 461 objections and was refused on the same grounds.

After the developers lodged an appeal back in May, anyone wanting to make representation was asked to do so by August 25.

However, Aberdour Community Council wrote to the Scottish Government in September asking that the recent flooding would be taken into consideration as it was "pertinent" to the case.

"The impact of this flooding on the site and subsequently downstream is not reflected in the documents and papers that have been submitted for consideration and we ask even at this late stage that the reporter please be encouraged to take a look at the flood assessment and impact as a matter of priority," stated the letter.

"The scale of the flooding has created a significant number of issues for the village, residents and extensively damaged the harbour. The impact on the community cannot be played down – we have had a large number of residents and stakeholders come to us and raise the deep concerns of changes to the site.

"To simply say that better on-site management can be implemented falls short on understanding quite the scale of the issue. Any management of this needs to be extensive and is not represented in the documents submitted, as the reality far outstripped all modelled projections."

As reported previously by the Press, the plans for Hillside School, submitted by Anne Harvey, were rejected in February which triggered the appeal against Fife Council's decision.

The council’s case is they don’t need any more new homes in the area and the applicant didn’t submit enough information on issues like design, flood risk, overdevelopment, landscape and natural heritage, green infrastructure and development in the countryside, for a decision to be made.

But Ms Harvey’s agent said they’re relying on housing figures in a plan that was refused at Holyrood, and this “inexplicable and potentially unreasonable behaviour” is why they’re also claiming appeal expenses from the local authority.

Philip Neaves, from Felsham Planning and Development, added: “The council needs to deal with the policy situation as it stands, not the situation it would like to see.

“It is not permissible or appropriate to cherry-pick information from a comprehensively-rejected plan because it suits the council’s position.”