THE views of the local community should be taken into account when deciding the future use of the Inverkeithing High School site.

Members of Fife Council's South and West Fife area committee agreed unanimously a motion from Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay councillor David Barratt calling for local views to be taken into account at their meeting yesterday (Wednesday).

A consultation has been carried out in the town in recent weeks and councillors were told that the overwhelming opinion was that the site should be retained for sports and leisure purposes.

"It is worth saying that, from the results, 83 per cent of responses said the site should be developed for community use," said Cllr Barratt.

"85 per cent said it should be used to develop better sports facilities for the area and 92 per cent said it should include the swimming pool going forward.

"This is backed up by the almost 500 signatures on a petition which has been going round in recent weeks to support a sports and leisure complex plan for the site.

"It is clear from comments there is a lot of scepticism about the future of the site and fears it could just be sold to the highest bidder for housing.

"Around half of respondents would oppose any form of housing on the site and only 12 per cent would support any form of private housing but, that said, there is greater support for the idea of some social housing but only on the condition that it would cross-subsidise future community uses of the site."

The Inverkeithing High school site is set to become vacant in 2026 when a new high school is due to open in Rosyth.

As reported previously by the Press, the calls to retain the pool there have been made by members of the local community amid concerns over the dwindling numbers of swimming pools in West Fife available for public use which has led to growing waiting lists for lessons in the area.

Another high school location currently offering lessons in its community-use pool, Woodmill, will close in 2024 and plans for the new Dunfermline Learning Campus, which will house Fife College and replacement high schools for St Columba's and Woodmill, do not include a pool.

Yesterday's motion asked for it to be noted that the community consultation had been carried out and that the committee agreed that the community view must be taken into account by the relevant committee in consideration of any development brief for the future of the high school site.

It added: "The committee notes that, from the results of the consultation, that continued community use and sports development remain the top priority and there is a strong demand to retain the presence of a swimming pool on the site."

Cllr Barratt added: "The purpose of the motion is to put on record that the community views should be reflected and it is putting something on record so that it can be referred back to when a development brief is moved forward."