Fife Council has dropped plans to take a west Fife firm to court in a long-running planning dispute.
The local authority decided to drop its pursuit of a full interdict against Crossford company Forth Tyres Limited as it said there is no ongoing breach of planning control.
Instead the saga, going back many years, will be settled on the basis of an undertaking from the tyre repair firm and the continuation of monitoring of the site at Backmuir of Pitfirrane.
However, City of Dunfermline area committee chairwoman Helen Law conceded the decision would mean some residents who have complained about the site “were not going to be happy we are not able to go the whole hog at this moment in time”.
“But this is a very difficult issue,” she added.
The issue stretches back to the late 1970s when Allisons Coaches ran the site as a bus depot and coach repair centre.
Files from that time no longer exist so the council could not find out if there were any restrictions placed on the operation in particular, if any limit was put on the number of vehicles that could operate from the site.
In the late 1980s permission was given for a coach repair workshop. Its use was restricted to a maximum of seven of the owner’s company vehicles. There was no restriction imposed on the number of vehicle trips to the site.
It was then sold to Stagecoach and from 2000 to 2005 it was used on a less intensive basis for coach repair and storage.
Forth Tyres then moved part of its operation to the site in 2006 and submitted a retrospective planning application to change the use from a bus depot to tyre repair business. It was refused.
Further change of use applications, and subsequent appeals, were refused in 2008 and 2010.
An enforcement notice was served in 2009 asking the company to stop unauthorised use of part of the land for parking and storage, reinstate an area to grassland and stop the tyre repair business on the remaining land.
The first part was complied with and in June 2010 council officers confirmed that while a significant part of the company now operated from other premises, it was still running in part from the Palma Nova site.
Meanwhile, a report on the breach of the enforcement notice was submitted to the procurator fiscal who declined to take any proceedings against the firm.
The council sought an interim interdict but the sheriff said the activities on the site as a tyre repair business were not sufficiently intensive, over and above the level of the historic planning permission for a bus depot, to merit the granting of an interdict. Costs were awarded against the council.
In response to continued complaints from neighbours, the council decided to monitor the site and found no major issues.
As the 2009 enforcement notice was now being fully complied with, there was no longer a breach of planning control and no basis on which to secure a full interdict.
However, councillors are keen to continue to monitor the site.
“We have got to maintain some kind of commitment to looking at the site, to keep a log and bring that back to committee that would give comfort to ourselves and comfort to residents,” Councillor Tony Martin said.
“But we know the real monitoring comes from the residents and they have to inform us of any breach.”
The committee agreed to continue to liaise with residents and keep a record of any complaints and report back every six months.