Hawkswood Estate gets green light for new restaurant

A self-catering holiday park in Fife has been granted permission to build a new restaurant complete with its own helipad.

The five-star Hawkswood Country Estate said it aims to create “Scotland’s finest hospitality experience” with the on-site bistro.

The new restaurant will seat 38 diners inside and 28 outside, with car parking spaces and a helicopter landing pad to the east.

The plans were discussed at a meeting of the north east Fife planning committee as they were the subject of 30 objections, as well as 40 notes of support from local residents and businesses.

Locals raised the issue that the noise from the helicopters could disrupt the Bowbridge alpacas farm immediately to the south. Objectors were also sceptical about the business’ sustainability.

However, council planning officers said neither Fife Council business officers nor the Civil Aviation Authority had expressed any concerns about the plans.

The restaurant and helipad were approved with conditions attached to ensure the development meets council standards.

Andy Taylor, Fife planner, said: “This proposal for the development of a restaurant/bistro in a countryside location has been assessed against policies of the development plan, national policy and other relevant national and local planning guidance [and] is acceptable.”

A Hawkswood spokesperson said of the plans: “This latest phase of our development will take Hawkswood Country Estate to the next level, creating a self-contained, very high quality ‘micro-resort’ which will help the whole area’s tourism industry to recover more quickly from the damaging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”