PLANS submitted by Fife Council for a new nursery in Lochgelly have been approved.

Work is scheduled to get underway on Monday at McGregor Avenue, on the site of the former Lochgelly North School.

It formally closed in October 2016 and the buildings were demolished, and the new plans will bring the vacant plot back to life.

The education department's plans will see a one-storey nursery building in the centre of the site which will be open Monday to Friday, from 8am to 6pm.

There will be landscaping, outdoor play areas, a car park with 15 spaces for staff and five spaces in a drop-off / pick-up zone.

Two new crossing points will be installed on McGregor Avenue, there will also be bike racks, buggy stores and a new footpath at the north of the site.

A 1.8 metres high metal fence will go around the nursery gardens, and a sprinkler tank and pump house will be located in the grounds.

The new nursery is needed due to the Scottish Government's plans to almost double early learning and childcare provision.

From August, it will increase from 600 hours to 1,140 hours for all three- and four-year-olds as well as eligible two-year-olds.

Families can choose from a range of nurseries, playgroups and childminders partnered with Fife Council and a variety of sessions, not offered at every site but available in every locality.

They are: six hours a day during the school year; four hours, 40 minutes a day for 49 weeks of the year; 10 hours per day for two days of the week plus another half day, on 46 weeks of the year; or flexible hours to be agreed with a private nursery, playgroup or childminder who is partnered with the council.

Lochgelly North School was used to teach children, aged between three and 18, with complex additional support needs in the Lochgelly and Cowdenbeath areas.

However, by 2012-13 there were just three secondary-aged pupils and the council took the decision to 'mothball' the site.

The decision to close it was taken in August 2016 and it formally closed in October of that year.

All pupils with complex additional support needs from these areas now attend Calaiswood School in Dunfermline.