A Fife couple who have ploughed their life savings into a new business fear it will be sunk by red tape before it has even opened.
Ewen and Maighan Brand had hoped to be welcoming the community to their cafe in a retail parade on Rosyth’s multi-million-pound Hilton Garden City development.
Their dream has turned into a nightmare, as costs mount up with no sign of when they can forge ahead with building work and start trading.
Ewen, who has put £20,000 of his personal funds into the venture, said the saga started last July when he and his wife submitted a request to Fife Council to change the use of the brand new building from an office to a family-friendly cafe.
They applied for a building warrant in October but Ewan said: “That’s when all the problems started.”
They have been frustrated by a raft of conflicting information from planning staff on a range of issues.
The former station manager for Virgin Trains revealed he had already taken bookings for a children’s party and was being asked when he was opening by a community desperate for a meeting place.
Sharing the couple’s frustration, Councillor Mike Shirkie said: “Occasionally the system fails and causes real problems for applicants. This is an example of one such failure.”
He said lack of “joined up thinking” and poor and conflicting advice had caused Ewen and Megan problems.
Fife’s planning head, Robin Presswood, confirmed the couple have had planning permission since November 13.
He said an initial planning submission was made on July 16 but failed to provide details needed to make a decision.
“Fife Council then requested the additional information required to validate the application.
“We apologise that, unfortunately, in this particular case, this took longer than eight weeks.”
A necessary building warrant was submitted in October and as part of that assessment, the council asked for work to meet the national minimum energy standards.
“However, how these standards are met is up to the applicants and the professionals supporting the application.
“Depending on how the applicants decide to meet the energy standards, additional permissions may be required. In view of this, Fife Council agreed to split the building warrant into two stages.”