Fife Council submit change of use for St Andrews Church

They've submitted a change of use application for the building on Lochgelly's Bank Street - which has been vacant since 2006 - and want it to become a "multi-agency community hub".

The old church was bought by the council for £80,000 to prevent it becoming derelict and a decade was spent on ambitious proposals to establish a top class regional climbing centre, operated by Rockgelly, in the former place of worship.

A 12-metre tower was built but the facility never opened as "financial difficulties" saw the rope cut in 2024 and the company "went into liquidation".

Now there are fresh plans to give the building a new lease of life and some purpose.

There are new plans for the old St Andrews Church in Lochgelly. (Image: Newsquest)

The council's application stated: "This church was converted to become a rock climbing and bouldering facility but unfortunately the company had financial difficulties and the venue never opened.

"Now it is to be used by the council as a multi-agency community hub, providing a range of activity including provision of family and one to one support, crisis support, group work and drop-in facilities.

"A number of social work and community groups will operate from the hub in providing services."

It will offer individualised and tailored support to families in need, multi-purpose spaces for parenting classes, skills development, support groups and youth engagement programmes, and an office for the out of hours team who work across Fife.

The aim is to open every day from 9am - 8pm and the building will have CCTV and controlled entry.

It was the end of the line for the Rockgelly project in February 2024. (Image: Fife Council)

The idea of turning the church into a top class rock climbing centre with a cafe and soft play facilities was first outlined in 2014.

Ten years later, amid spiralling costs, it was the end of the line.

Councillors at the Cowdenbeath area committee in February 2024 were told that the Rockgelly project "no longer seems tenable".

It left a climbing tower that was substantially completed but will now never be used.

Officers told the committee they were unsure how much money the regional climbing centre would cost to run and how much cash it would bring in.

The church on Bank Street in Lochgelly has been empty since 2006. (Image: Newsquest)

They said the proposed operators, Rockgelly, were "not able to advance" with their plans due to a lack of funds.

Instead, they put forward ideas to turn the empty church into a community hub as Lochgelly Town Hall would cost "substantially more" than £500,000 to fix.

At the time Thom Humphrey, who spent 10 years on Rockgelly, said: "In Lochgelly, the town hall is falling down and all the crucial services based there need a new home, so it has been suggested that St Andrew’s Church could be that home.

"While this sounds good in theory and we would love to be part of a big community hub, it would mean sacrificing the bouldering area of Rockgelly to make room and we would only have the roped-climbing tower available.

"As bouldering is far more accessible to new climbers, far more popular than roped-climbing and is a crucial part of our plans, this is simply too big a sacrifice and would leave us with an unsustainable business model, reliant on volunteers and donations to stay open."