IT'S taken more than six years but proposals to build 140 new homes on land north of Wellwood have finally been approved.

But Fife Council are facing a £1 million headache and criticism over developer contributions after their decision to refuse Omnivale's application was overturned on appeal by the Scottish Government.

The Nottinghamshire firm first tabled plans to build homes on 14 acres to the east of the A823 in January 2017 and their argument, that the local authority was asking for too much money, has been accepted.

The decision is a huge blow for the council with the government reporter disagreeing with the way they calculated the sums due and shaving more than a £1m off Omnivale's bill, with a warning that the "public purse" may have to pick up the shortfall.

It will also open the door to other housing developers to argue that they should be paying less too.

Fife Council's head of planning, Pam Ewen, said: "We're happy to see another key strategic site secure planning permission that will allow the overall development plan for Dunfermline to progress.

"We're disappointed, however, that the appeal decision has agreed a lower level of developer contributions towards the provision of road and school capacity than we had been seeking."

Omnivale's application for planning permission in principle was rejected by the council in October 2019 and an appeal was made to the government's planning and environmental appeals division in January 2020.

The long-running saga centred on the firm's refusal to pay or provide land for the Northern Link Road (NLR), and the level of developer contributions required by the council for education and transport.

Also known as planning obligations, this is money paid to local authorities to mitigate the adverse effects of new housing developments on existing infrastructure, such as additional traffic on local roads and pressure on school rolls.

However, Omnivale said Fife Council's demands were "patently unfair, unreasonable and unlawful" and they were only willing to pay contributions based solely on the impact of their site.

The council said the site couldn't be viewed in isolation and contributions should be based on the cumulative impact of all the new housing estates in the area.

But their sums were calculated on draft guidance from 2017 that, the following year, government ministers said shouldn't be used.

Omnivale said the council took no action to supply any revised guidance and the reporter, Trevor Croft, agreed, concluding: "There is thus no current statutory guidance that says how obligations should be delivered and it is effectively left to agreement between the council and a developer to determine what obligations and at what level should be paid."

After a hearing in November 2021, the firm dealt with two of the reasons for the council's refusal by agreeing to build the NLR and providing pedestrian and cycle links from their site.

In October 2022 Mr Croft said he was minded to grant planning permission, but after giving both parties 12 weeks to reach an agreement over the contributions he concluded "it was not possible".

With talks at an "impasse", Omnivale submitted a unilateral obligation on how much they were willing to pay.

The council argued it wasn't enough and accepting less money would mean the firm "being treated favourably" compared to other developers who had agreed with their approach to calculating and securing contributions.

However Mr Croft said he found it to be a "comprehensive document that addresses fairly the need for contributions on transport and education".

It means that for the new 14-class primary school at Wellwood, Omnivale will pay £7,906 per market unit.

Based on 105 homes – affordable homes not included – this comes to £830,130.

The council had wanted £1.6m.

For strategic transport infrastructure measures, calculated on the impact from the 105 market units, they'll pay £110,000.

The council's revised figure was £350,000 – initially they had wanted £550,000.

The education contribution to help alleviate capacity issues at Queen Anne High School and the money for three new off-site footpaths was also much less than the council was looking for.

While the matter is still within the time limit for a judicial review, Omnivale said they did not wish to comment at this stage.