DEVELOPERS creating a Costa Coffee and gym in Dalgety Bay have applied to remove a condition that was put into place following concerns about road safety.

Franchise operator Cuppacoff SC Ltd were given approval in August to build the dual-purpose, two-storey unit at the Donibristle Retail Park, under the condition that they must also provide Fife Council with a traffic management plan, along with the management of the wider site, and agree to construct a new pedestrian crossing at the junction of the drive-thru entrance and Ridge Way.

However, they have now applied to remove the condition saying it is "impossible to implement".

There has been redevelopment in recent years at the retail park on the edge of Hillend Industrial Park known as 'The Gateway', which is already home to Aldi and a number of smaller retail and food and drink units.

The Costa which comes with a drive-thru will be built with the nearby A921 in mind – seen by transport experts recruited by Cuppacoff as a vital link road to the M90 and other southern towns in the Kingdom.

The unit will be subdivided on the ground floor, with the gym taking up the entirety of the storey above. An operator for the fitness suite has not been disclosed.

Fife Council said it was satisfied with claims that the new drive-thru would not create a troublesome number of extra journeys clogging up the roads when they granted approval.

But conditions were attached requiring Cuppacoff to outline its plans for landscaping and boundary treatments prior to the unit opening for business, and to provide 52 car-parking and eight cycle-parking spaces.

And, of course, to provide a traffic management plan.

Dalgety Bay Community Council had proposed a one way system and the Council's Transport Officers were in agreement noting:

"The private vehicular access and internal car park would benefit from traffic management to control traffic flow through the site - retention of two-way traffic flow on north-south spine road; introduction of one-way north-south traffic flow on the aisle fronting the existing units on the eastern boundary of the site; entry only at the north end; two-way flow at the mid-point; and exit only at the south end."

Agent Architecture Design Limited on behalf of Cuppacoff said the condition stated that within one month of the granting of planning permission, the applicant and/or the Gateway Retail Park management company should submit a traffic management plan for the retail park car park for approval by the planning authority.

The wrote: "Having discussed with the council and transport consultants what is required to clear this condition, it has been confirmed that the entirety of the works required fall outside of land that is within our clients demise.

"Our client has no control over the land to which this condition relates and as such this condition is impossible to implement."

Councillor David Barratt has criticised the franchise over the move.

He said: "You wouldn't think it was beyond the abilities of the applicant to at least make contact with the Gateway management to discuss this.

"They have provided no evidence that they have even done that much. It comes across as putting money before public safety."