PROGRESS on a new development of 1,400 homes and a new primary school has moved on to its next stage.

Taylor Wimpey will be building on agricultural land between Kingseat and Halbeath.

They first paid a deposit to buy Wester Whitefield Farm, east of Whitefield Road, in 2005 and announced in January that, 17 years later, the purchase had been concluded.

Now, a planning application has been made to Fife Council for the next stage of pre-construction works.

This follows an initial pre-construction and enabling work off Whitefield Road which included the demolition of the Wester Whitefield farm buildings.

Pauline Mills, land and planning director at Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, said: "We are very pleased to be making good progress in the significant preparations required to create our new neighbourhood, Whitefields.

"Our latest planning application for a programme of pre-construction grouting will allow us to maintain that progress.

"Whitefields will be a brand-new community and place to call home in north Dunfermline with the delivery of around 1,400 new homes, the creation of major new infrastructure and improvements to existing transport links, as well as the provision of substantial community benefits.

"Whitefields will have its roots firmly in north Dunfermline while supporting the existing local communities of Kingseat and Halbeath as its new community develops and grows."

The 1,400 new properties will include apartments as well as detached, semi-detached and terraced homes and it's hoped will bring a wide range of benefits to the area.

These includes a new primary school, shops and community facilities, cycleways and pedestrian footpaths, meadow grasslands, an equipped play area and an "outdoor meeting space".

The development will bring improvements to Kingseat Road and Whitefield Road while the new Northern Link Road, a £20 million-plus bypass to serve the new housing estates in north Dunfermline and take traffic away from the city centre, will run through the site.

Measures to enhance the area for local wildlife will also be taken, including 'bug hotels' and 'hedgehog highways'.

Taylor Wimpey also say that 25 per cent of the new units will be classed as affordable housing.

Ms Mills added: "We hope to secure consent in around three months’ time and we plan to implement the works later this summer.

"As well as delivering much-needed new homes in north Dunfermline, Whitefields will also provide a range of economic benefits for the local area which includes supporting over 160 jobs per year of construction, as well as the attraction of new customers to local businesses."