Fife Council has asked for more time to decide on plans for a new Lidl supermarket in Dunfermline.
The budget retailer wants to build a shop on the site of the former King Malcolm Hotel on Laburnum Road.
Details of the plans emerged in March with Lidl revealing a computer-generated image of what the new store could look like.
Now Fife Council has written to Lidl to ask for an extension to the normal time period for deciding on the application.
Fife Council asks for more details on Dunfermline Lidl plans
The local authority says more information is required to allow it to fully assess the proposals, including a bat survey, drainage details, and “further information regarding trees and design amendments”.
It now wants until at least May 16 to make a decision.
Meanwhile, some public comments about the proposals have been published on the Fife Council website.
That includes two couples who have lodged formal objections and one resident who has asked for the plans to be changed.
One couple who live on Elm Grove – one street away from the proposed Lidl site – have objected due to concerns about an increase in traffic, car parking availability, night lighting, gulls nesting, littering, the removal of trees on the site and the availability of other shops nearby.
Their letter says: “We hope that Fife Council planning department takes these environmental and health reasons into consideration and vote against the building of another unneeded supermarket in Dunfermline.”
Another couple also living on Elm Grove have raised similar concerns.
Concerns about rubbish being thrown into residents’ gardens
Among the reasons is “left-over food and rubbish being thrown into our gardens and throughout Laburnum Road” by pupils from nearby Dunfermline High School who will “no doubt… frequent this new haunt”.
They also want to see housing built on the site instead of a shop.
A third resident, who lives on Pitcorthie Road, is concerned about the location of the proposed supermarket on the site.
She fears the development will lead to the “deprivation of privacy, daylight and sunlight”, and asks that the building be moved closer to the western side of the plot.
Letters of objection and support will be considered by planning officials in making their final determination.
More about developments in Dunfermline:
- New shops and restaurants that could be set to open in Dunfermline area
- Disused Dunfermline sites and what’s planned for them
- Images of how Dunfermline city centre could look under bold new vision
- Empty Dunfermline shop units and what’s planned for them
- Dunfermline housing developments bringing thousands of new homes
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