£500m Rosyth development 'at risk'

BANKING veteran Jim Spowart yesterday called for the development of land next to Rosyth dockyard in Fife to become an election issue after claiming that a lack of council support was putting £500 million of investment at risk.

Spowart – who set up Rosyth-based bank Intelligent Finance and now chairs the Rosyth Waterfront Liaison Group – said there was "overwhelming" public backing for the regeneration plan.

Scarborough Muir Group (SMG), which bought the waterfront land from the Ministry of Defence in 2000, wants to build a mixture of offices, leisure facilities and a "gateway" development for passengers using the Rosyth-Zeebrugge ferry.

The developer claims it needs Fife Council to adjust the local plan to include more land zoned for mixed use rather than industrial to make the project viable.

SMG is encouraging Rosyth residents to have their say on the draft local plan, a consultation on which is closing on 19 April. Public meetings have been organised for today, tomorrow and next week.

But Spowart said he feared that remediation work on the site could ground to a halt if the local plan is not changed.

He added: "Given the forthcoming General Election and the national importance of this site, we would encourage local people to raise this with parliamentary candidates as it's an issue far too important for the Fife and the Scottish economies to be ignored."

Bill Lindsay, Fife Council's team leader for local and community policy, re-emphasised the council's desire for all residents to have their say over the local plan.

He added: "Fife Council is committed to developing Rosyth's role in tourism as well as the important industrial commercial role of the port, and looks forward to working in partnership with SMG and the other landowners at Rosyth waterfront as part of the finalisation of the local plan."