WHAT the aftermath will be of the withdrawal of Tesco from building a store at the north end of the town’s High Street caused an interesting debate at Wednesday’s meeting of the Cowdenbeath Night/Day Challenge Group.

A week before the retail conglomorate announced they would be quitting the project which was to see the store constructed at North End Park bringing 150 jobs to the area.

The Challenge Group is geared to making the High Street more attractive to increase footfall in the area’s retail hub and there were hopes that the Tesco store might have breathed new life into the north end.

Councillor Peter Lockhart said that the news was a blow to the town and at the moment no one really knew what was likely to be the future of the site, which had been a football ground for over 100 years.

Fife Council’s Andrew Walker said that the land had planning permission for retail use and any purchaser would have the option to use it for a store or some other retail use, or would have to re-apply for consent to change the use of ground.

Cowdenbeath Community Council’s Christine Gourlay said with Tesco set to build their facility along with Aldi’s planned store in Stenhouse Street, allied to Morrison’s which is already in the town, this might have posed big problems for these retailers.

She added, “I honestly do not think that the North End Park site really needs to be used for retail purposes.

“Whether the town has the footfall for three big stores, I would say is questionable. I certainly do not think there would be anything wrong with houses being built on the site.

“That would bring people to a quiet part of the town and near to High Street.” Area Services Manager, kevin Sayer, pointed out that at this stage Tesco was believed to have sold the site and currently people would have to wait and see what the new owners would be doing with it.

Councillor Lockhart added, “What I do not want to see is North End Park being left to become overgrown over the spring and summer to become some sort of wasteland. That would not be good for the town.” The Group agreed with him but realised that it was now a watching brief to see what developed in the coming weeks.