An appeal panel is due to meet on Tuesday, December 15, to decide whether to uphold an earlier decision to allow pharmacists Fraser MacPherson and Partners to operate the facility.

Their application was granted by NHS Fife despite an almost identical one having been turned down only weeks previously, prompting a storm of protest in the communities of Leuchars, Balmullo and Guardbridge.

The doctors who operate two local medical practices appealed against the decision amid claims that their dispensing services would suffer and the resulting loss of income could jeopardise one or both of their surgeries.

In the meantime a group known as SODS — Save Our Dispensing Surgeries — was set up specifically to oppose the application on the grounds that the present service offered by Drs Bryan Johnston and John Salamonski was adequate and that the post office premises were not suitable.

The group claims that a recent survey carried out in the Leuchars area showed that a 'massive majority' were in favour of retaining the dispensing surgeries.

They have been given the backing of local politicians including MP Sir Menzies Campbell, MSP Iain Smith and MEP Ted Brocklebank, all of whom are urging the National Appeals Panel to take into account the community's views and reject the application when it meets on Tuesday.

Read more in this week's Fife Herald and St Andrews Citizen.