Glenrothes Development Corporation records

Glenrothes Development Corporation 1948 to 1996 and structure
The government received the Reith Report, the outcome of which was the New Towns Act of 1946. In Scotland there had been a report by Sir Frank Mears on industrial development and the housing needs in the centre and south east of Scotland. From this report and from other evidence, the government concluded that there was a need for a new community in Fife to provide housing for the miners and the balancing population which would go along with them.
The officials of the Department of Health for Scotland came to the conclusion that the best area for the siting of a new town extended to about 5,700 acres, in the parishes of Markinch, Leslie and Kinglassie.
The draft New Town (Glenrothes) Designation Order was published in January, 1948. This order stated that Glenrothes when fully developed would have a population of 30,000 with a proper balance of industry.
A memo from the Secretary of State for Scotland accompanied the order and in it the reasons for the development of a new town.     
Figures were quoted to show that the Lanarkshire coal fields were declining and that the fall in the output of coal had to be met by the rapid expansion in Fife. A number of coal mines were to be opened in the East Fife area and Glenrothes would provide housing and other facilities for the miners and their families.
The Secretary of State considered that it was possible for Kirkcaldy to be expanded to take some of the miners and for others to be accommodated in places like Kennoway, which were being developed by the County Council.
This still left the need to accommodate about 3,500 miners and it was decided that the best way to do this would be to build an entirely new town where the miners would be integrated with the other workers so that the proportion of miners to other population should not be more than 1 in 8 or 9.
The Secretary of State also had in mind that in 1944 a committee called the Scottish Coalfields Committee had recommended that miners should, whenever possible, be housed away from the colliery and should have the advantage of living in a mixed community side by side with members of other trades and occupations.     
The purpose of the draft order was to inform all people concerned of the proposal to designate a new town and to allow anyone who had any objections, to lodge them with the Secretary of State. If any objection was lodged, the Secretary of State was required to hold a public local inquiry.
Objections were lodged and the inquiry began on 31/03/1948. The objectors were the Thornton branch of the National Farmers Union, Tullis Russell, Fife Paper Mills and Sir Robert Spencer Nairn who owned most of the land in the designated area.
The reasons for the objections were:- the loss of agricultural land and the concern from the paper mills about use of the water from the River Leven by any new industrial concern setting up in the town. The objectors recommended a site north of Markinch and Leslie in the region of Star. They did not believe that the new town would develop into a town with a population of 30,000 and that it would only be the creation of another small burgh between Markinch and Leslie.
The Secretary of State considered the evidence and decided that the new town should proceed as originally designated in the draft order. In 1950 a draft outline plan for the new town was approved by the Corporation. The outline plan and phasing plan were submitted to the Dept. of Health for Scotland in 1951.
By 1953 the emphasis was on the housing of transferred miners but the Secretary of State announced that the population of Glenrothes was not likely to exceed 18,000. This was because of the revised estimates of the National Coal Board and the reduction in the manpower requirements for the Fife area.