SEVENTEEN years after Blacklaw Primary School was knocked down, plans have been approved to develop the empty site.

Robertson Homes will build 85 affordable homes on the 2.6-hectare plot north of Whitelaw Road and then sell them to Fife Council for social rented housing.

Permission was granted last week by the central and west planning committee.

Blacklaw was closed and then demolished in 2005 but the site remained empty and seemingly forgotten, with rough grassland now covering it.

There were 30 homes built on the northern part of the site in 2013, Melrose Crescent and Lunn Gardens were named after Dunfermline Athletic's Scottish Cup-winning heroes of 1961, Harry Melrose and John Lunn, but little progress on the remainder of the land.

A report to the committee explained that housing expansion in Dunfermline had "created capacity issues" in local schools and held up the redevelopment of the site.

With those problems now resolved, plans for 45 two-storey semi-detached houses, 26 two-storey terraced houses, nine semi-detached bungalows and five three-storey town houses were brought forward and have now been approved.

There were four objections, raising concerns about loss of privacy, overshadowing, increased traffic, noise, loss of trees, impact on wildlife and increased air pollution.