The Site
The general location of the proposed development site is as shown on the Location Plan below.
The site, which extends to approximately 8.7 hectares (20.96 acres), is located on the northern edge of the village of Crossgates, a village situated to the east of the M90 and approximately 2 miles east of Dunfermline.
Specifically, the site, which is elongated in shape, is located within a well-defined gap between the built-up area of the settlement and the landscaped verge of the A92 which bounds the site to the north. It contains the existing farm buildings (excluding farmhouse) of Mains of Beath Farm in the north-east corner of the site.It is bounded to the east by Old Perth Road, the B981 public road which runs north to south through the village and beyond. The southwestern boundary is defined by Manse Road and the remaining parts of the southern boundary are bounded mainly by existing residential properties along Church Place and John Wood Place. Crossgates Church also immediately abuts the southern boundary.
The topography on the site is characterised by a steady fall in gradient generally across the site overall from north-east to south-west. There is however a central spine running east to west in the form of a dip/valley and then the land rises again towards the southern boundary on the eastern part of the site. On the western part of the site, the ground rises again to form 2 distinct mounds before the ground dips steeply to the western and southern site boundaries.
The site is presently in agricultural use but allocated for development in the Local Development Plan.
The site is identified as allocated Housing Site Old Perth Road (Reference CRO 002) in the adopted Local Development Plan (Fifeplan), with an estimated capacity of 200 private sector houses. The extract below shows the extent of the allocation on the LDP’s Proposals Map in yellow and labelled as CRO002.
