The “poor relation” of Kirkcaldy High Street is to be given a long-awaited £750,000 facelift but not until next year.
The street’s west end was left out of a multimillion-pound project that saw the rest of the shopping area transformed.
Fife Council has blamed a wrangle with contractors, who claimed they suffered severe financial losses during the works, for delays in starting the third phase.
But plans for the section between Whytehouse Avenue and Nicol Street are finally off the ground and, subject to funding being approved, work should begin in May.
It includes upgrading the pavements with the same finish as the rest of High Street, installing trees, benches, bins, a mosaic and raised crossings. There will also be improved bus stops with shelters, improved lighting with uplighters and provision for Christmas lights. As much car parking as possible will remain and loading bays will be included after requests from traders.
Derek Crowe, the council’s senior manager for roads and engineering, said the objective was to improve the town centre as the primary shopping area for Kirkcaldy.
The High Street improvement programme was always intended to be delivered in three phases.
It began in the east end and continued along the pedestrianised area at a cost of £4.4 million, with any money left over to be used for the third phase in the west end. Move forward four years and the west ends remains untouched.
Mr Crowe said: “Phase two proved to be challenging and the contractor required robust management and supervision.
“At the end of the contract the contractor submitted extensive claims to seek to redeem the losses that they allegedly made on the contract.
“Given the scale of the contractor’s claims, no commitment could be made to taking forward phase three until a firm budget was available.”
Councillors have now agreed to provide £350,000 from the Kirkcaldy Town Centre Development fund, with approval being sought for a further £400,000 from the executive committee next month.
Mr Crowe added: “Given the priority of this high-profile project and the long lead-in times involved in public procurement, the completion of contract documents and the tendering process are currently under way, to allow the pricing of tenders by the end of the calendar year.
“Once the overall funding package has been approved, we will be able to complete the tender acceptance by late January.
“Allowing for a 12-week period to procure the specialist granite surfacing units, it is anticipated that works will start on site in early May 2015.”
The fact the third phase is finally going ahead has been welcomed by councillors.
Susan Leslie said it had always been felt the west end was the poor relation of High Street. “My family had businesses in that end of the High Street and it was always felt we were outside the rest of the High Street,” she said.
“It’s important it’s treated the same way. There are a lot of small, privately-owned businesses at that end it’s not the big chains and they’re crucial to the regeneration of the area.”
Fellow councillor Kay Carrington added: “Residents, shopkeepers and shoppers alike are looking forward to this finally happening.”