A multi-million pound lottery windfall to help create a museum and art gallery in Dunfermline was hailed as fantastic news for the town.
Fife Council’s manager for libraries, arts and museums, Dorothy Browse, said the £6.8 million funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund would create a “prestigious museum facility.”
The money is more than half of the £10.7 million needed for the gallery, scheduled to open in Maygate in 2015.
A further application for £2.8 million will be submitted by the council in December, and discussions are ongoing with the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust and local businesses to come up with the £1 million shortfall.
Ms Browse told members of the council’s housing and communities committee yesterday, “This means we can get on with the development phase of the project.
“We will be receiving money to create what Dunfermline has lacked for some time-a prestigious museum facility. We’ve set ambitious timescales of a year on this project.”
Committee chairman Brian Goodall added, “It’s extremely positive news.
“There is obviously still a lot of work to be done, but I add my thanks to the people involved in the stakeholder group for the work that’s been done to this stage.”
He added, “It’s been a long process with some setbacks and ups and downs, but it’s great we have reached this positive phase. The last thing we want is any more delay.”
Mr Goodall said he was grateful local people and businesses were behind the project, and continued, “The vast majority of the funding is in place.
“There is a fantastic collection we are currently unable to display and that will be a real highlight.”
Edinburgh firm Richard Murphy Architects won the design contract for the centre several years ago but there were setbacks regarding funding.
The plan will see two historic buildings in Dunfermline town centre-the Dunfermline Carnegie Library and a B-listed former bank-transformed into a museum, art gallery, library, archive and local history centre.