An action plan which aims to improve Glenrothes town centre is making good progress, councillors have been told.
But while that may be the case, elected members admitted on Wednesday that the prolonged battle between Tesco and Sainsbury’s for a proposed supermarket in the area has done the town little favours so far.
Regeneration of the town has become a key strand of work for Fife Council and it was agreed last year that the local authority should work with a variety of interested parties and the town’s main Kingdom Shopping Centre to come up with a vision for the future.
Much of the changes centre on the planned supermarket as part of the Kingdom Centre’s planned expansion, with councillors hoping the new store will act as a catalyst for the process. However, although Tesco has been named as the preferred bidder for the site at Falkland Gate, Sainsbury’s confirmed this week that it is still interested in the site meaning the timescales involved remain unclear.
Although he acknowledged the matter was a business decision for mall owners AXA/CIS, council leader Peter Grant said he hoped the “to-ing and fro-ing” in relation to the new supermarket would end soon.
“I welcome the progress being made with the action plan but, at the same time, we can do things almost lightly around the edges but it’s still a private sector monopoly and we can see the damaging effect that can sometimes have,” he said.
“People will have their different views about what supermarket should come in but at the end of the day they just want something. Until AXA/CIS get their act together there’s very little we can do.”
His comments were echoed by councillor Ross Vettraino, vice-chairman of Fife’s environment, enterprise and transportation committee, who described the supermarket as “key to all of this.”
“It’s not been at all helpful that we’ve had a firm coming in and ‘clearing the pitch’, in my view,” he said, “but this action plan is an example of this administration doing as much as it can to invest in the town centre. We are doing all we can to help redeem the situation.”
Councillor Bill Kay said he reckoned Tesco’s usurping of Sainsbury’s in the bidding war would mean the town is unlikely to see a supermarket for another four or five years, adding that Tesco’s interest seven or eight years ago had “stymied everything” and resulted in no development.
However, Councillor John Beare looked on the positives and said, “Despite the issues with the town centre, we can decry it but it’s safe, it’s clean and it’s got free parking, which undoubtedly brings people into Glenrothes.”
Area committee councillors agreed on Wednesday to put £20,000 from the area budget towards continuing to develop the plan.
Councillors also heard that a regeneration plan is being drawn up for the Queensway Industrial Estate to try to develop it as a central business district for Glenrothes that could complement retail and leisure activity in the town centre.
With funding secured for the next stages of work, a further report on the wider Town Centre Action Plan is expected to go before councillors in November.