MORE Central Fife lock-ups will be knocked down as part of an £8 million programme of demolition and refurbishment.

A 10-year programme was agreed in February 2019 and councillors at the community and housing services sub-committee were given an update last week.

Service manager Mark McCall said: "Progress on site surveys and area plans was being made towards March 2020 and lessons were learned, particularly around availability and cost of refurbishments, and certainly a lot of lessons were learned about the complexities in dealing with multi-tenure blocks which were not identified initially.

"The opportunity to refurbish lock-ups became challenging this time last year so we refocused on demolitions.

"The report to the committee includes where demolitions have taken place in low demand areas and how the land has been re-purposed for parking and potential micro-sites for affordable housing."

In Central Fife that's seen lock-ups at Blackburn Drive, Cowdenbeath, and Carden Castle Park, Cardenden, flattened and replaced additional parking.

After the pandemic disrupted work, a revised timetable is being developed for each of the seven committee areas.

In Central Fife there is a proposed demolition at Cullaloe View, Cowdenbeath in order to create further additional parking.

Mr McCall added: "Something I'm particularly keen on is the contribution it's made to the aesthetics of our estates and certainly it contributes to the wider estates management policy as well.

"We're also progressing with a policy position on selling lock-ups, particularly the sale of individual blocks as well as full sites."

He added that there had already been a "number of enquiries from private developers" and a report would be brought back to the committee on the next steps.

Committee convener, Councillor Judy Hamilton, agreed that there would have to be controls over the potential uses of sold sites, adding: "The last thing we want to do is create more dereliction or mayhem with unauthorised businesses."

The council report said they will focus on low occupancy sites to see if they are surplus to requirements and look at buying back previously sold lock-ups "where it would otherwise prevent necessary works to be completed".

They will also look at options to improve the customer experience for lock-up allocations and to streamline the overall process.