Musselburgh-based Shine Properties intend to turn the old Sinclairtown Library on Loughborough Road in Kirkcaldy into seven new apartments as part of a project that will also see a number of external alterations made to the C-listed building.

The building was constructed as a library and a clinic around 1930 and closed a few years ago when a new library was created as part of the new Windmill Campus, The Courier reports. 

Fife Council put the building up for sale back in 2018 and is understood to have been bought for around £250,000 before the flats plan emerged in late 2019.

Planners at Fife Council have now given consent for the development despite one objection citing concerns about the impact on traffic, parking and access.

A spokesperson for Andrew Megginson Architecture, working on behalf of Shine Properties, pledged the redevelopment will be carried out sensitively. The spokesperson said: “Listed buildings are a speciality for AMA and something we thoroughly enjoy working on.”

The building retains many of its original period features and has a large garden to the rear with views over the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh.

There had been concerns locally about how the development might sit alongside plans for flats at the former Viewforth High School, which is also on Loughborough Road, but planning officials at Fife Council said they had to judge the application on its own merits.