A FIFE councillor was told not to make an "utter fool of himself" after asking for more detail for a plan outlining priorities in Fife for the next few years.

Councillors were asked to adopt the Plan for Fife 2021-24 update at a full council meeting on Thursday however Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay councillor Dave Dempsey asked for more detail and measure which would help gauge the document's success.

His request was shut down by council co-leader Councillor David Alexander who made a comment he later agreed to withdraw.

"Meeting after meeting we hear the same stuff from Dave Dempsey in front of some very similar people and not one person ever agrees with him," he said. "We just listen to the same stuff on and on again.

"Frankly David, you make an utter fool of yourself and it is about time someone told you that. We are going to do this plan. It is the way forward. We have got senior people involved, leadership throughout the partnership and I am delighted we are going to approve it today for the benefit of people of Fife not for egos."

Cllr Altany Craik suggested the comment had been a "hangry one" and said it was "probably unhelpful" to call people a fool in a full council meeting while Cllr Tony Miklinski, who had seconded Cllr Dempsey's motion for more information, called for the comments to be taken back.

He said: "The code of conduct demands we treat each other with respect. I would expect Cllr Alexander to withdraw that and apologise."

Provost Jim Leishman said the words had been a "bit harsh" and Cllr Alexander finished the matter by adding: "I said I thought is behaviour made him look like a fool. If you want me to withdraw it, I am more than happy to withdraw it."

Councillors agreed to progress with the plan update which will identifies key priorities of boosting the economy, tackling poverty and addressing the climate emergency.

Cllr Dempsey had asked for more detail to be incorporated into the report, an amendment which was councillors voted 47 to 18 against.

"This does no harm but it could have been so much better without an awful lot of effort," he said. "The whole point of this plan is it doesn't tell anybody anything.

"A plan should tell what is going to happen, something about how we are going to get there and how will we know what how we have done it. When are we going to hear the scientifics about how we are going to make Fife the better place that our public deserve?"

Cllr David Ross said it was necessary to agree on the plan instead of the process.

He added: "There are a lot of things going on which you would not detail individually in here. Let's get back to the priorities and what is important and agree we really need to press the recovery together and tackle poverty, develop our local economy and tackle climate change."