ANOTHER row is brewing after a fresh bid to secure earlier opening hours for Costa Coffee's new unit in Halbeath.

Having failed to get consent from Fife Council to start serving from 5am, and having an appeal to the Scottish Government knocked back, the applicant has now asked for 5.30am.

PVY Ltd, of Garvock Hill in Dunfermline, received planning approval for a new development off Main Street, including drive-thrus for Costa and Burger King, in October and work is almost complete.

However, councillors fixed trading hours as 7am-11pm to protect local residents from noise issues.

A supporting statement with PVY's application said: "The proposed extension to the morning hours of operation has been reduced under the current proposals to enable operation from 5.30am as opposed to the previous 5am.

"An agreement between the applicant and Costa Coffee to enable such a reduction was secured following further negotiations with Costa Coffee that were initiated by the applicant in order to explore every possible opportunity to further allay the committee's concerns.

"In this regard, it is hoped that the committee will recognise the applicant's goodwill gesture in seeking to, as far as possible, respond positively to perceived concerns relating to noise impact.

"As such, all that is now being asked for in terms of an amendment to the hours of operation is an extension of only one-and-a-half hours from 5.30am to 7am for only one of the two class 3 units approved on the site."

The request to the council to vary the planning conditions to allow for a 5am opening was objected to by 29 locals and rejected by the council in November. A spokesperson from the Halbeath Tenants and Residents Association had told the Press previously: "Having the community woken up at five in the morning with loading and unloading of goods (is bad enough) but it is not just that, it is all the additional traffic."

A subsequent appeal to the Scottish Government was refused and PVY's claim for expenses against the council for acting unreasonably was also knocked back.

Reporter Mike Shiel concluded that the levels of noise and light from the drive-thru would be acceptable at 7am, when most people are waking up – but not at 5am, when they are still asleep.

He had added: "I consider that the operation of this unit between 5-7am would be a potential source of disturbance to the adjoining residents in Main Street.”

However, PVY have now submitted a noise impact assessment to back their view that locals won't be affected adversely.

It concluded that "noise from all sources would lead to an external noise impact of less than marginal significance throughout the 5.30am to 7am period".

The assessment also said that previous surveys of early-morning noise were undertaken during lockdown and "background noise for the equivalent periods during normal activity will be higher".

The supporting statement added: "The noise report now incorporates a more robust methodology which fully demonstrates that the proposed operation of the Costa Coffee facility from 5.30am will not result in any significant effect on the amenity of neighbouring sensitive premises in terms of both ambient noise levels and noise associated with intermittent events."