THERE'S finally a buyer for the former Fife Council offices in Dunfermline that have lain empty for 10 years.

Missives for the sale of the boarded-up eyesore at Walmer Drive have been concluded but the deal is conditional on a change of use being approved.

The council remained tight-lipped as to the prospective purchaser and a planning application for the building has not yet been tabled.

Councillor Helen Law, convener of the City of Dunfermline area committee, said she didn't know who the buyer was and added: "There's been interest in it before and there was a proposal to build flats there and in the car park that were knocked back.

"I don't know if the same group are involved this time.

"It was always the council's ambition to sell it off. From some angles, it doesn't look like much but from the south looking up, it's quite an impressive building."

In October last year, a proposed £3.3 million redevelopment of Walmer Drive was refused by the council.

Two Knights Developments, based in Dalgety Bay, wanted to convert the old offices into nine homes and build a new five-storey block with a further 18 homes next to it.

However, planners said it would represent a “form of over-development” and would dominate the existing category C-listed building visually and the surrounding area.

The original property is an early 19th-century, two-stone villa and a three-storey ‘wrap around’ extension was added in the 1960s when it was converted into office premises with an enclosed car sales garage.

Walmer Drive has been vacant since 2011, when the council deemed it surplus to requirements, and with little or no interest from buyers it was boarded up.