3.3. St Andrews World Class – South Street

Derek Crowe, Fife Council Area Transportation Manager (derek.crowe@fife.gov.uk) and Scot Harper, Scottish Enterprise Project Executive, St Andrews Physical Infrastructure Project. (scott.harper @scotent.co.uk).

There was a display outside the meeting of the plans for the next phase of the south street refurbishment, proceeding eastwards from the previous work at the West Port.

Derek Crowe outlined the World Class project’s aims to improve the town centre and address current and expected traffic problems.

The old-fashioned herringbone style parking was appropriate to the smaller cars of the past, but not now to the wider and longer modern vehicles. The need to reverse out into present day traffic is a problem – South Street has worst rate of accidents in the East Area of Fife, though fortunately mostly damage-only small bumps – few injuries.

The trees are past their “sell-by” date, he said. Root damage to road and footway is extensive and threatens the underground utilities. It is intended bring in new near-mature trees in deep buried containers which protect and control the root systems, as at the West Port end.

Town centres are about people not cars. Fife Council intends to reduce reliance on travel by car in the town centre. To help this Petheram Bridge car park has been expanded to provide more out-of-centre parking and public transport, in the form of the Park & Ride scheme initially, improved. There will be a new bus shelter east of Blackfriars – similar in design to that at Petheram Bridge. To make South Street more attractive to walk along it is proposed to widen the footpaths and provide better access to parked vehicles – both made possible through change to parallel parking. The loss of spaces this entails can in part be balanced by a 30 minutes ticket option (current minimum 1hr) which will encourage a faster turnover amongst those only calling into the shops for one or two items. New street lighting will better support the CCTV system. There is no proposal to bring in more cycle lanes.

Ewen Sparks, speaking as chair of the Merchants’ Association, was very worried at the 50% loss in parking places. More parking is needed close to the town centre; Petheram Bridge is inadequate in this respect. He suggested that rather than adopting parallel parking the angle of the parking bays should be changed to minimise the loss of spaces while reducing the intrusion of longer vehicles into the carriageway. The Park & Ride buses need to run all year round and for longer hours to encourage incoming workers to park on the periphery and bus in. Murdo Macdonald called for the transport improvements to come before the parking reductions. Ken Crichton asked what consideration had been given to the effects of the parking changes on nearby unrestricted and uncharged areas.

Responding to the parking points Derek Crowe noted there are 45 currently parking spaces in this section of South Street which will fall to 21; there will be no change to taxi ranks, or disabled spaces. The 30 minute period proposal will help with turnover of parking spaces, which is something that has been called for in St Andrews for some time. They are aware of the effects on unrestricted areas. He agreed Petheram Bridge is not the full solution. This is one of the first phases of the refurbishment of the whole town centre. The Area Transport Plan revision will contain proposals to revitalise parking generally in St Andrews. Extending the Park & Ride is a more complex issue as it would be a cost to the council tax. Joe Peterson proposed: leave the all places intact, half the minimum parking period, build a second floor to Petheram Bridge car park – and on the back of that re-establish the bridge itself.

Penny Uprichard was concerned for the settlements around St Andrews. Where would people coming in to St Andrews for weekly shopping park? The reduction in parking will drive shoppers out of the centre, to Safeway’s she said. Cynthia Tero asked what car parks are envisaged, perhaps to the south and east of the town? Derek Crowe though that purchase of land for parking would be very expensive in and around St Andrews, and probably beyond the Council’s means so may have to be funded by other developments.

Ewen Sparks also asked about dates for the work: can’t have it running during St Andrews Week. Scott Harper replied that they were aware of issues over timing of the works. They are planned for Sep-Dec, but they will talk to various groups to identify holiday weekends, special events, etc when work must be avoided.

Penny Uprichard believed the Zebra crossings to interrupt traffic flow and to pose a particular danger to cyclists. There have been a number of comments on the proposed change of the Pelican to a Zebra from disabled groups so they are looking at this again, Derek Crowe said. However generally Zebras are preferred as they give pedestrians priority, in line with the philosophy that town centres are predominantly for people, not cars.

She felt the pavements on South Street to be of adequate width already and described the narrowing of South Street carriageway as “criminal”. He pointed out that even if the pavements are adequate now the project is looking at the needs of the next 20-ish years.

Murdo Macdonald felt that cycle racks don’t improve the appearance of the town centre. Derek Crowe answered that the proposed cycle racks are of colour and design to match the street environment. The underlying problem with the appearance of cycle racks in St Andrews tends to be the abandoned bikes rather than the racks themselves and he pointed out that there are procedures in place between Fife Council and the Police to deal with this problem.

Dennis Macdonald asked for more information on the replacement trees: these will be lime trees, but a more upright species which does not spread as much as the current type, and probably not quite as tall at full maturity.

Cllr Frances Melville pointed out that many items on the plans will have to be subject to planning approval. Scot Harper acknowledged this and expected an application for the full scheme will be in process by end of the month.

3.4. Parking Pressure

Sheila Watson of Greenside Court asked that community council bring pressure to bear to restrict the development of flats with insufficient parking places because of the pressure on parking spaces immediately outside the controlled zone and the abuse of private spaces in eg Greenside Court.

Members of the planning committee responded: Pete Lindsay confirmed that the committee did consider and comment on the number of parking places associated with applications. Penny Uprichard felt the underlying problem is development in places where no one has lived before, increasing pressure on infrastructure generally as well as parking. She cited the Cowies Coachworks application as a current example.

3.5. Why South Street?

Carolyn Walker asked why South St was the priority for refurbishment when other areas were in greater need in the centre. Cllr Frances Melville replied that Scottish Enterprise was the driving body, priorities are dependent on what they want to do. She felt that the lack of democratic input or control was a continuing concern.