Scores of new homes in Fife's East Neuk after row over affordable housing

Elie Estate Trust, which owns swathes of land across the area, has outlined how it hopes to upgrade roads and build 25 homes on land north of Grange Road in Earlsferry, and build a further 55 homes and other amenities east of Wadeslea in Elie.

Both sites are earmarked for housing in Fife's local development plan.

Seeking planning permission in principle - meaning a further, more detailed application will be required prior to construction - the Trust said the development would encourage year-round economic activity in an area with "something like 75% second homes".

Planning agents, Optimised Environments, said in a submitted planning statement: "This development will be of lasting quality, contributing positively toward the townscape of Elie and Earlsferry."

However, the plans received hundreds of objections from locals concerned about the scale of the developments, the suitability of the area's narrow country roads for more vehicles and issues with local drainage capacity.

During marathon discussions on Wednesday that ran to almost three hours, the North East Planning Committee also raised questions about whether affordable housing was being fairly allocated across the pair of sites - and if the impact of the additional, non-standard housing had been properly assessed.

The Earlsferry plot will see 25 private homes built across 8.18 hectares, while Elie will see more than twice as many homes built in an area three-quarters of the size: 55 homes - 23 of which will be affordable - a care home, a GP practice extension, an unspecified number of retirement homes and business units, all packed into 6.87 hectares.

The Trust has indicated that Kingdom Housing would be tasked with assessing the requirement for social housing - and if the Elie site is refused then a smaller number of affordable houses would be allocated at Earlsferry instead.

Fife's affordable homes strategy dictates that the houses should be mixed in among privately owned homes to encourage community cohesion.

Conservative councillor Tony Miklinski quizzed officers on why the Earlsferry site was made up of a small number of "premium" homes while affordable homes were "squeezed" into the Elie plans, along with an as-yet-unspecified number of retirement flats and a care home.

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William Shand, strategic development manager, said the number of affordable homes was too low to distribute across the two sites in a cost-effective way.

On the additional homes, added: "Given it's a care facility rather than generally residential, the impacts will be significantly less in terms of car movements. The devil's in the detail - there will be a requirement of further assessment."

However, independent councillor Linda Holt said approving the plans in their present form would contribute to "the creation of a ghetto of affordable housing" - and expressed concerns over whether it would even be built.

"The whole point is that it's supposed to be integrated into developments," she said.

"The real reason (for putting all the affordable homes in Elie) is this is the most expensive part with the biggest houses in Earlsferry.

"You're going to maximise building as many big houses with as few little houses for poor people to maximise profitability."

Cllr Holt also accused the council of ignoring the views of heritage officers, who fear that the villages will become overdeveloped. This was denied by planning officer Mr Shand.

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Cllr Bill Porteous said it made sense to put the affordable homes on the Elie site, noting: "It's close to shops, the school, to the doctor's surgery, the church, public transport, everything."

June Barrie, Fife Council's legal services manager, said the availability of affordable housing could be guaranteed under a legal agreement.

In addition, lead transportation development officer Richard Simmons added that the two developments would see a maximum of 73 and 84 additional vehicles on the roads per hour before and after 12pm respectively.

Their reassurances were enough to convince councillors to approve both sets of plans - albeit with scores of conditions attached to control development.

A condition was imposed preventing homes from being occupied until drainage upgrades were completed by Scottish Water, and a note was made that councillors wanted to see a cycle path upgrade north of the Elie site completed as a matter of priority.

The Trust will also be required to contribute £1,000 per home towards open spaces and/or play areas, and a further condition was attached limiting the occupation of retirement homes to the over-55 with care needs, in order to address concerns that the homes could be misused as second homes.

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