A TOWN the size of Cowdenbeath needs a range of restaurants and the possible loss of the Kashmir Paradise in early 2015 would indeed be a blow.

In the summer we told how the owners of the Kashmir, at the north end of High Street, wanted to purchase the Crown Hotel site and turn it into a new restaurant but they got little support from the owners of the burnt out building.

They are still looking for a site to relocate but meanwhile the derelict building remains and one of the town’s busiest restaurants is in limbo.

With a population of almost 11,000 the town has this year lost La Ducal, a Spanish restaurant which built up a very loyal clientel, to Dunfermline and to lose another so soon, will be a serious blow.

Councillor Peter Lockhart is rightly very unhappy that the owners of the Crown site seem unwilling to consider selling to restaurant owners and will continue to press for something to be done to improve this blight on the Cowdenbeath landscape for the past five years.

With work on building the new Tesco store set to start surely the burnt out shell of the Crown cannot be left to continue to leave this entrance to the town looking bleak.