New home plan for Fife Scout hall gutted by fire is turned down

Jim and Pauline Smith wanted permission to transform the former facility in Cardenden Road, Cardenden, into a one and a half storey, three bedroom home.

The site has sat unused since the devastating fire almost four years ago. Earlier this year, Fife Council gave the 4th Fife Scout Group Cardenden the green light to forge ahead with its plans for a new facility on farmland opposite St Ninian’s Primary School on Orebank Road. It has been based out of Auchterderran Church Hall while it searched for a new home, and fundraised to make it a reality.

The couple’s plans to revamp the old hall have now been turned down.

A planning statement, submitted as part of the application, said: “The building is not capable of rehabilitation. The proposal seeks to create an accessible and comfortable living space that brings a disused and redundant site back into use.”

Councillors rejected the application on the grounds that the development involved the “introduction of a use within a flood risk area which is significantly more vulnerable than the existing use.”