With the increased pressure new housing can place on GP practices, councillors have agreed consideration should be given during review of the Fife local development plan to allow Fife Council to add health and social care sites to the list of schools, play parks and other infrastructure in its requests for capital investment while determining planning applications.

East Neuk and Landward councillor Bill Porteous proposed the change after the impact on Tayview Medical Practice could not be taken into account when councillors were deciding whether 158 new homes could be built in Wormit earlier this year.

After winning support, Mr Porteous told The Courier: “Thanks to the new Planning Scotland Act 2019 enacted in Holyrood and the new local development plans coming soon in Fife we can make a difference to all our communities.

“I look forward to developers, NHS Fife, Fife Health and Social Care Partnership and our senior planning and legal officers within Fife Council working constructively together on this approach to planning contributions.

“Recent community representations in planning applications in Wormit and St Monans clearly indicated people’s concerns about the lack of GP frontline medical provision.

“I sincerely hope this motion being passed will in future go some way to make our local people feel more positively engaged in the whole planning process and not, as councillors across Fife hear far too often, highly frustrated by the process.

“The approval of this motion goes some way to ensuring, in our climate and social crisis of today, potential for future other planning conditions that can contribute to sustainable planning development for Fife and beyond.”