AN emergency motion has called on Fife Council to demand that the Scottish Government put up the money to build the new £7.8 million health centre in Kincardine.

The current Kilbagie Street surgery was condemned as 'not fit for purpose' in 2016 and Labour councillor Graeme Downie fears villagers will be waiting "more than 15 years after the current building was found to be unsuitable" before the delayed replacement near Feregait is ready.

Last week's shock announcement from Scottish Government minister Maree Todd, who said funding for the health centre was likely to come in the "second half" of the decade, prompted him to appeal for local authority intervention.

Cllr Downie, who represents the West Fife and Coastal Villages ward, said the "cutting of capital funding" by the government will further delay the project and he sought support for his emergency motion at the full council meeting on today (Thursday).

It read: "This council is aware that in 2016 the community in Kincardine were told their GP surgery building was unfit for purpose and a new building promised by NHS Fife and Scottish Government.

"As a result of changes to Scottish Government capital spending, on March 7 it was announced that funds for a new GP surgery in Kincardine are 'unlikely to be released within the initially anticipated timescales'.

"As a result resources will 'likely be provided in the second half of the decade'."

Cllr Downie continued: "This will mean Kincardine is unlikely to have a new GP surgery completed until more than 15 years after the current building was found to be unsuitable.

"This decision will make it harder for NHS Fife to provide effective healthcare to the people of Kincardine."

The motion, seconded by Cllr Andrew Verrecchia who also works for NHS Fife, asks council leader David Ross to write to Humza Yousaf, the cabinet secretary for health, "outlining the urgency of the construction of a new GP surgery in Kincardine".

And it calls on the candidate for the SNP leadership to "provide funding so that the people of Kincardine can have the new GP surgery building they were promised in 2016."

NHS Fife want to create a health and wellbeing centre, along with a car park and landscaping, on green space west of Feregait, close to Tulliallan Primary School.

Plans to replace the existing property, which had "reached the end of its economic life as a clinical facility", were announced in 2016.

A former police station, it was built in the 1930s and had been modified considerably to the stage it's now three times its original size.

Last year NHS Fife blamed pressures including Brexit, the conflict in Ukraine and the pandemic after the estimated cost of the new centre jumped from £4.65m to £7.8m.

An outline business case was submitted last June but the health board was asked by the government to re-submit it with additional information.

Last week NHS Fife’s director of public health, Dr Joy Tomlinson, said the health board "remains committed" to delivering the new facility in Kincardine and will work with the government to"secure funding".