Fife Council has strenuously denied claims its plan to build luxury homes to sell is like “right to buy on steroids”.
Senior housing officer Alan Ball said the proposal for five large houses next to a planned children’s home in Kirkcaldy was an innovative solution to a unique set of circumstances.
Mr Ball said the local authority had no desire to set a precedent with the idea, which would see the four and five-bedroom houses built at the same time and in the same style as the residential home at Raith Gates.
He added that the main intention was to ensure the children moving from Rimbleton House in Glenrothes blended in with the local community and would not have to endure a building site next door if the land was sold to a private developer.
This, he said, would protect the social and mental health of the vulnerable youngsters.
The proposal, which was passed by councillors on the executive committee this week, has proved controversial in some quarters.
Some local residents, who were vehemently opposed to the children’s home when it was first mooted two years ago, insisted the council would be better selling the entire site.
SNP councillor Neil Hanvey said he appreciated the first priority was the children but added: “I’m really struggling with the concept that it’s our core business to take a gamble on building luxury homes.
“This is like right to buy on steroids.”
Mr Ball responded: “We have gone to some lengths to justify why we want to do that.
“As part of a normal trading operation we would not have to go to that level of justification.”
Councillor Bryan Poole, spokesman for education and children’s services, said he was disappointed some councillors had forgotten the key objective of “the relatively small development”.
“The key objective was to build not a house but a home for children who have not had the advantages of a childhood that most of us take for granted,” he said.
“When this house and home is built we don’t want it to stand out and we want the children to be part of the surrounding community.”
A planning application will now be drawn up for all six houses.
