PLANS to build two houses on the site of a former pub that was demolished by mistake have been approved by Fife Council. 

The old Quayside Inn, on Harbour Place, had been turned into a home by Royal Marine Ross Hunt but he was left in tears after returning home from service to find it had been knocked down in error. 

It took more than four years and a court battle before he won compensation and a £69,500 payout in March 2017. 

A couple of months later plans were submitted, and later approved, by a firm who wanted to build two homes on the site but the consent expired without the work taking place.

Dunfermline Press: Royal Marine Ross Hunt, pictured in 2017.Royal Marine Ross Hunt, pictured in 2017. (Image: Ross Hunt)

An application to renew planning permission has now been approved.  

MRL, of Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, will build two family homes, with double garages, access and landscaping.

Their agents said: "The land to the west of Harbour Place will offer much needed family homes to the area and the opportunity to regenerate a brownfield site."

READ MORE: Royal Marine wins court battle after his home was wrongly demolished

Mr Hunt had told a court he had broken down in tears when he returned to Inverkeithing to find a pile of rubble where his home used to be.

To add insult to injury, the firm responsible implied they had done him a 'favour' and opposed his claim for damages.

But in true ‘Who Dares Wins’ style, Mr Hunt took them to court and won.

The Quayside Inn was previously known as Ye Olde Foresters Arms and had been a pub since 1873.

Mr Hunt bought it and the upstairs flat in 2004 for £150,000. His property was bulldozed in September 2012.

It was next to the site of the derelict Caldwell's paper mill in Inverkeithing, which was demolished in the same year and the land cleared.

When Mr Hunt's career took him around the world, his home was unoccupied.

However, he was intending to return to live there when he took up the role of bandmaster for the Royal Marines Scotland Band.

Six years on from the victory in court, the site is around 1,000 square metres in size, comprising overgrown and previously developed land that's now covered by trees, shrubs and grassland.

A Fife Council report said: "In terms of neighbouring land use and development, there has been no significant change in circumstances since the previous permission.

"Given the scale and discrete nature of the proposal, it is not considered that renewal of planning permission for a further three years would cause any significant uncertainty as to the future pattern of development in the area."