Kinghorn road to reopen at weekend '“ after four months

Members of the public present the petition to Lovell

Housebuilder Lovell Homes has confirmed that the road, which was closed on January 15, will reopen at midnight on Saturday.

The road was closed for Lovell to carry out preparatory work ahead of building 133 houses on land next to Kinghorn Loch and was supposed to reopen on April 25. At that stage a five day extension was asked for, but the work was still not finished on time.

Before the work began, angry residents, supported by Councillor Gordon Langlands, presented Lovell with a 1200 signature petition objecting to the closure.

Roy Mackie at the site of the road closure

This week many welcomed the news, with one woman, who did not wish to be named, saying: “Not before time. This has taken a ridiculous amount of time and should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.”

Roy Mackie, vice chairman of the Royal Burgh of Kinghorn Community Council, said: “The vast majority of people will be delighted at this news.

“The general consensus is that Lovell has pushed every boundary to act in their favour and they haven’t received a very positive response at all in Kinghorn.

“Trees were cut down when they were not supposed to be and a walkway was supposed to have been kept open to let walkers through, but that didn’t happen.

“A lot of people, and in particular small businesses have suffered because of this road closure, and we have heard that this won’t be the final one.”

A statement from Lovell said: “The road was previously closed to allow the completion of works associated with Lovell’s Lochside Grange housing development on the outskirts of Kinghorn village.

“As a result of bad weather and the presence of unidentified underground services, Lovell had previously applied for an extension to the road closure until May 31 to allow additional time for the works on the B923 to be completed.”

Commenting on the reopening of the road, Lovell operations director, Kevin McColgan, said: “We appreciate and understand the inconvenience the extension of the road closure may have cause locally and we have been working very hard to complete the works to allow the road to reopen.

“I am now pleased to be able to confirm that the B923 will reopen to traffic at midnight on Saturday. We are really grateful to local residents for their patience and understanding during this time.”