Glasgow-based Lucid Architecture hopes to create 11 studio flats with serviced accommodation at 2 Queen Anne Street.

The site houses a former gym that burned down several years ago.

The architects said the building has been “an unsightly and rather unsafe feature” since the blaze some years ago. And they add: “It urgently needs developed.”

Various housing developments have been approved for the site in the past. However, none have come to fruition.

A planning statement explained: “Dunfermline is likely to see an increase in demand for short-term lettable accommodation with nearby developments of Fife College and an anticipated increase in tourism to West Fife, hence the proposals for studio apartments or one-bed apartments.

“These serviced apartments will also help to add to the housing mix locally, providing useful accommodation for less than a three month long let and potentially bridging that gap with medium stays between these longer lets and short expensive hotel stays.”

It added: “The proposals are for high quality, energy efficient studio homes, appropriate for people undertaking further and higher education as well as visitors, tourists and workers requiring temporary accommodation for nearby hubs such as Rosyth or Mossmorran.”

Developer Dunedin Heritable Investments Ltd explained: “The site was previously a two storey gym, destroyed by fire some years ago and, since then, has remained an unsightly and rather unsafe feature for pedestrians navigating between the bus station and Bruce Street.

“The site is very constrained, restricted to the west between the backs of the two storey category C listed shop units at 30 and 43 Bruce Street and public steps, rising over two a half metres, to Dunfermline Bus Station to the east.”

The firm added: “This site urgently needs developed with a new building in place to knit it back into the urban fabric here are repair the damage at the site edges and the project has support in the local community to try to find a new use and get the process moving again to secure a useful new building here.”