Glenrothes has been handed the unwanted title of the most dismal place in Scotland.

The Fife new town beat competition from Motherwell and New Cumnock to win the Carbuncle Award, dubbed the Plook on the Plinth.

Judges felt Glenrothes had failed to move with the times and said the town's Kingdom Centre shopping mall felt like a 1980s "time warp".

Gordon Young, one of the award's organisers, said: "There is nothing wrong with the town itself. … but the people who live there are being badly let down by its depressing town centre, which could and should be better."

Mr Young added: "The place is crying out for more civic space. Instead what is offered is a drab shopping mall, surrounded by depressing car parks. Inside, shoppers are subjected to a threadbare 1980s interior."

Glenrothes was constructed in 1948 under the New Towns (Scotland) Act and is home to an estimated 40,000 people.

It lies just a few miles from Prime Minister Gordon Brown's home town of Kirkcaldy.

The town is also home to Westminster MP Lindsay Roy, who was the headteacher at Mr Brown's old school. Mr Roy said that the award was the result of "poor planning".

Mr Roy said: "People make towns, not buildings. The people of Glenrothes are well aware of the inadequacies of the town centre.

"Planners and architects will be involved in moving things forward, so it looks like something constructive will come from that."

The Carbuncles competition was set up in 2000 to provoke debate about the quality of development in many of Scotland's towns and cities.

Previous recipients include Cumbernauld, Airdrie and last year's winner, Coatbridge.

Another Carbuncle Award this year went to the decision to grant planning permission for Donald Trump's £1billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire. And the conversion of Glasgow's Plaza Ballroom into a block of flats was named Worst New Building.