IT'S been 17 years in the making but a land deal that paves the way for 1,400 new homes to be built in Dunfermline is finally in place.

Taylor Wimpey first served notice in 2005 that they wanted to buy Wester Whitefield Farm, east of Whitefield Road, and last week they announced the purchase has been concluded.

The firm has started demolishing buildings on the site in preparation for a vast housing development and "brand new community" between Halbeath and Kingseat.

Pauline Mills, land and planning director at Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, said: “With the delivery of around 1,400 new homes, the creation of major new infrastructure and improvements to existing transport links, as well as the provision of substantial community benefits, Whitefields will have its roots firmly in North Dunfermline while supporting the existing local communities of Kingseat and Halbeath as its new community develops and grows.

“The demolition of Wester Whitefield Farm will take around two months to complete and it is the beginning of a significant programme of pre-construction enabling works which, in overall terms, will take around 15 months to complete."

George Aitken, who bought Wester Whitefield Farm in 1979, confirmed: "They've bought the whole farm. We moved out about three months ago and they've started knocking it down.

"We've known about this for 17 years, Taylor Wimpey paid a deposit in 2005, there was an agreement for 10 years and they had an extension and then wanted another one.

"We've bought another farm at Cardenden and are quite happy to move, it was dragging on and we were getting a wee bit tired of waiting. It's a change of scenery."

The family-run business has been going since 1965 and he continued: "Wester Whitefield was 40 acres and the new one is 41 acres, we bought another one in between as well.

"We've got 210 cattle and about 450 sheep, we deliver milk but don't produce it.

"It's not a wrench to leave, it's just one of those things. We've had it for 40 years but when we bought it we were told the land would be needed for homes eventually.

"It happened before. We had Bellyeoman Farm, which is where Queen Margaret Hospital was built, and knew it was going to be sold as Dunfermline was moving that way."

Taylor Wimpey said the acquisition of the land was a "key milestone" in the delivery of their Whitefields development.

As well as 1,400 new homes, which will be a mix of apartments and detached, semi-detached and terraced houses, it will include a primary school, shops, community facilities, playparks, 'outdoor meeting space', meadow grasslands, cycleways and paths.

The development will bring improvements to Kingseat Road and Whitefield Road while the new Northern Link Road, a £20 million-plus bypass to serve the new housing estates in north Dunfermline and take traffic away from the town centre, will run through the site.

Measures to enhance the area for local wildlife and improve biodiversity will include features such as bug hotels and 'hedgehog highways'.

A quarter of the new houses, 350 units, will be affordable homes and, as a nod to the former land use, stonework from the farm including a door lintel inscribed with RW-IL 1662, will be reinstated within a 'character area'.

Ms Mills added: “As well as delivering much-needed new homes in north Dunfermline, Whitefields will also provide a range of economic benefits for the local area which includes supporting over 160 jobs per year of construction, as well as the attraction of new customers to local businesses.”