A PROPERTY developer is planning to take the Scottish Office to court over a decision to halt a #30m project which was expected to create 400 jobs.
Earlier this week, Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar took the unusual step of rejecting outright the findings of his own Reporter to a Public Inquiry that was launched because of the scale of the retail, leisure, and tourism development at Leven Fields, Kinross.
The developer, the Guinea Group, described the decision as ''extremely confusing'' and is in talks with company lawyers over the its next move.
It also emerged last night that a community pressure group which was backing the plan, Regeneration of Kinross-shire (RoK), has claimed that there was a ''hidden agenda'' over the development, after it received a leaked document outlining a similar proposal for a site at nearby Rosyth's east tip and oil fuel depot, the only part of the dock area still owned by the Ministry of Defence.
The Scottish Office insists that Mr Dewar had no knowledge of the Rosyth development and maintains the Kinross plan was rejected because it didn't comply with the Tayside Structure Plan, the increased volume of traffic that was likely to be generated and lack of public transport links.
RoK spokesman Brian Adams said he received the document, a brief for consultants to prepare a retail and economic impact assessment on the Rosyth plan, the day after the Scottish Secretary officially rejected the Kinross development.
He said: ''This leaked document puts a whole new perspective on the Secretary of State's refusal for Leven Fields. It raises a number of questions to which we will be seeking answers from Mr Dewar and our local MP, Mr Martin O'Neill.
''Having heard of the existence of this other project, we have lost faith in the system and the Scottish Office. Having disregarded the professional opinions of both Perth and Kinross Council and and his own Reporter, Donald Dewar has just thrown the planning system into chaos.
''Why should anyone bother to attend a Public Inquiry, and why should the taxpayer fund them, if the Scottish Secretary isn't prepared to take the advice of his own reporter?''
Guinea Group managing director John Drummond said the firm should know by the end of next whether it will take action through the Court of Session against the Scottish Office.
''The Scottish Office always has the ability, if they feel that something has not been done incorrectly in the Public Inquiry or hasn't been sufficiently explored should be explored, to reopen the Public Inquiry to look at those particular aspects rather than just say that the reporter got it wrong,'' he added.
Mr Adams said there had been more than 2000 letters sent to the Prime Minister in support of the Kinross plan, which included a centre on the life and times of Mary Queen of Scots, who famously escaped incarceration from nearby Loch Leven Castle.
The proposal also included bringing a US-style shopping and a Scottish food centre to the town, which in recent months has been.
The Rosyth development, put forward by a company called Rosyth 2000, is on a larger scale and includes a ''time traveller park'' that will have among other attractions a Mary Queen of Scots multi-media show, a tourist village, a hotel and public transport arrangements including a park and ride facility and new railway station.
Mr O'Neill, the Labour MP for Ochil, said: ''As far as the question of the Rosyth issue is concerned I will be talking to RoK group on Monday night and I'm writing to the Secretary of State about the way in which the Leven Fields decision was taken.''
An MoD spokesman said the department is currently in negotiations for the sale of the site but would not comment on the planned proposal.
A spokesman for the Scottish Office said: ''The Rosyth plan has not been put before the Secretary of State and is not something he is aware of.''
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