By Craig Smith

PROPOSALS TO revamp the centre of Glenrothes have been hailed as a “statement of confidence” in the town in a new report.

But councillors on the policy, finance and asset management committee were also told yesterday that the key driver of the ambitious plans, CIS, will still have a number of “challenging” hurdles to overcome before the development can be realised.

Members were given an update on the progress of the proposed town centre development, which will see a £35 million Sainsbury’s store, seven additional shops and a new multi-storey car park created just off North Street.

The move will see the demolition of the CISWO Bowling and Miners’ Club and the Glenrothes YMCA, which will be relocated to new purpose-built sites nearby in South Street.

The existing unoccupied office block, known as New Glenrothes House, will also have to be torn down, as will the Royal Bank of Scotland and Clydesdale Bank branches in the vicinity.

The banks will be moved elsewhere within the adjoining Kingdom Shopping Centre.

With all that in mind, development manager Iain McGregor admitted there were still many issues to be addressed by the developer in his report to committee.

“At the time of writing, only outline financial appraisals of the scheme have been discussed and given these are at an early stage, it would be counter-productive to speculate further on how this might firm up in the near future,” he said.

“It is worth pointing out at this stage, however, that this will be a challenging scheme for CIS to deliver, given the site assembly costs and market conditions.”

Despite all the challenges that remain though, Mr McGregor said CIS’ plans are to be welcomed in “making a positive contribution” to the renewal of the town centre.

“Like all towns of scale and influence, it is important that Glenrothes has an economically vibrant and functioning town centre,” he added.

“The proposals are a statement of confidence in the town and are intended to be one of a number which will follow in the years ahead as the centre renews itself.”

Councillors were also asked to note that rival supermarket Tesco has also reasserted their interest in the council’s land holdings.

Tesco had been previously involved in talks with CIS prior to Sainsbury’s interest, but the report put before committee stressed that the process used by CIS in favouring Sainsbury’s to any other was “unknown” by the council.

The report did note, however, that Tesco would be unable to deliver development in the town centre without CIS’ involvement as the key landowner in the area.

In terms of car parking issues, one deck of the new multi-storey car park will be set aside for visitors to the CISWO and YMCA by way of compensation to the council for the loss of spaces.

“Beyond that particular issue,” the report warned, “car parking generally will require careful consideration both during any construction phase and thereafter in its longer-term management.”

In addition, the report confirmed that the development will mean that North Street will be stopped up to a point adjacent to the present petrol station.

Access to the new facilities will be taken along Kingdom Avenue as is presently the case for existing ones.

The Glenrothes local area committee originally approved the planning application by CIS and Sainsbury’s for retail units amounting to around 80,000sq ft, ancillary multi-storey car parking of 976 spaces and landscaping to the north side of the existing centre on December 7.