By Aileen Robertson

A 150-YEAR-OLD church could face closure if plans to move Dunfermline bus station are given the green light.

Members of Gillespie Church in Chapel Street have formally objected to a proposal by Kingsgate centre owners Crosslands Properties to build a bus station at the former Co-op site.

They fear the safety of frail and elderly churchgoers would be compromised if Chapel Street becomes choked with buses.

An ambulance has had to be called to the church on three occasions this year already, leading to concerns about vehicular access.

The Rev Gordon Reid, Gillespie minister and moderator of Dunfermline presbytery, said restricted access would also put the church’s future as a venue for weddings and funerals in doubt.

He said, “As the proposals stand they don’t allow any vehicle access to our church, which makes weddings and funerals exceptionally difficult, if not impossible.

“It is a very busy church. Sometimes people don’t appreciate that, because it is an old building and they think nothing happens in it. In actual fact we are exceptionally busy and have 40 different groups a week meeting at the church, with a full age range.

“The most vulnerable would be elderly people and the mothers and toddlers groups, which have four meetings a week.”

He said noise and vibrations from buses would interfere with services. He said the church could face closure if the plans were approved and there had been no consultation before they were submitted.

“Everybody is absolutely appalled with the plans and with the lack of consultation,” he said.

“We want to see the town centre being redeveloped but it would need to be in a suitable way and we don’t find this suitable. It is not just for ourselves—the concentration of buses coming in and out through the narrow streets just seems wrong to us.

“If these proposals went through as they stand just now it would be the end of our building as a viable place of worship.

“The church has been there for 150 years, serving the people of Dunfermline. We try to do a lot in the town centre and the fact we have tried to do our best makes it all the more disappointing that the planners can just discount us altogether like this.”

Councillors on west area development committee have been recommended to approve the bus station proposal when they meet in Dunfermline on Wednesday.

The planner’s report states the proposal forms part of an overall strategy to address the “current commercial east-west imbalance” in the town.

Initially, the existing bus station was to be rebuilt at its current location beside the Kingsgate centre. However, it was moved to allow further development of the Kingsgate.

In total, six letters of objection were received by the council in response to the plans.

The other objectors were Royal Mail, European Gas Consultancy, Third Base, Acorn Pet Centres and a local property owner.

Ali Chisholm, a partner at Third Base record store, said, “Does Dunfermline need their bus station to be relocated 300 yards west (with all the cost and upheaval), with basically the sole intent of housing more Kingsgate shops?”

Mr Chisholm said introducing more retail at the Kingsgate and building a bus station at the former Co-op site would do nothing to address the town’s east-west imbalance.

He added that the area might become a “no-go” area in the evening, which he said, “has already been confirmed at the existing bus station.”