The thin end of the wedge for walkers

Dave Morris, The Edinburgh Evening News, 14 July 2005

We walked across the fairway, and exchanged a friendly word with the golfers as they passed by. The lady was from Vancouver, enjoying the fine weather and facilities at Archerfield Links in East Lothian.

Yes, she was a club member, happy to come to Scotland for one week a year, pay a joining fee of £10,000 plus annual charge of £1000 for her exclusive experience. Welcome to modern Scotland, doing golf the USA way.

Unfortunately, our experience of Archerfield was less rewarding. Beside the public car park, we encountered Archerfield's six-foot high security fence, not entirely dissimilar to the Gleneagles G8 version, with the same intent. Stepping anywhere within the 504 acres of the Archerfield estate was clearly not encouraged.

Following the fence to where it met the sand and rocks of Yellowcraigs beach was equally depressing - there it was marching into the distance, a few yards from the high tide level, stopping all access along the coastal fringe, unless you want to jump and skip across the pebbles, rocks and sand. Difficult if the tide is in.

Archerfield is a warning to everyone who values public access to our countryside and the protection and enjoyment of our coastal scenery. Our planning system today is clearly unable to cope with the menace of the modern golf resort.

It is all too easy, as we watch Jack Nicklaus enjoy his richly deserved salutations at St Andrews, to be misled into thinking that golf, public access and protection of our coastal scenery is in harmonious balance.

This may well be true on those coastal courses, such as Dornoch and St Andrews, where respect for traditional forms of public access, both on the course and between course and beach, is deeply embedded in the psyche of golfer and the wider community.

Not surprising then that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 ensured that public access across golf courses should be protected in statute, provided that care was taken to avoid disturbing golfers in action.

Unfortunately, our legislators had not accounted for new golf course developers combined with local councillors bemused by the promise of mega-money from America, the Far East and everywhere else where a golfer might one day aspire to play the famous links courses of Scotland, and their imitations.

The rot set in with Kingsbarns, developed in the late 1990s between Crail and St Andrews on the Fife coast. At the planning permission stage, we tried very hard to persuade Fife Council to pull the development back a little from the coastline. We failed, completely. So today you would be well advised to carry a hard hat as you walk the coastal path and, if you are a golfer, check your insurance policy. One day a rambler can expect a very big crack on the head and the lawyers will be in action.

The St Andrews Bay development followed, with two more courses north of Kingsbarns, and now a further course beyond these is under construction. Today, you will find golf tees and greens where the coastal path should be and, a few weeks ago, bulldozers were obliterating the existing informal path along the top of the coastal cliffs. Look out for the Fife Coastal Path, supposedly one of Britain's famous long distance routes. Below the golf course you will find a muddy morass of a path clinging to the steep ground and, lower down, signs telling you to wait if the tide is in.

So here, as in East Lothian, our local councillors have sacrificed the wider public interest to the call of the modern golf developer. Each wants a course far, far too close to the coastal fringe but also, in many cases, with a pile of executive housing and maybe a hotel thrown in.

We need new rules for our coastline, rivers and inland lochs, similar to those put in place long ago in other European countries.

In Sweden there is a prohibition against development within 100 metres of the high tide level. Along our rivers, such as the Dee and Spey, new golf course developments point to the need for 50-metre protection zones, at least, between waters edge and golf green. We need this protection now, to provide access for everyone from horse riders and cyclists to buggy pushers and ramblers.

Equally important, we need space for our coastal wildlife habitats, as well as sufficient land to take account of coastal erosion. The golf course developers have to be pushed back, at the cost of a tiny amount of private pain but with a huge public gain.

Later this year, the Scottish Parliament will legislate for a new planning framework. This is the chance to put in place a modern system for coastal protection, which meets public aspirations and needs. Most European countries did this decades ago. It is time for Scotland to catch up. Tell your MSP - no more Archerfields, give us our coast back.

• Dave Morris is director of the Ramblers' Association Scotland

Ramblers go to war on golf estate

Paul Lamarra, Sunday Times, June 26, 2005

Right-to-roam legislation is facing its first big test from plans by a property developer to build a £55m luxury “gated community” adjacent to one of Scotland’s most popular country walks.

Battle lines have been drawn between ramblers and conservationists on one side and Kevin Doyle, an Edinburgh-based publican and building tycoon.

At stake is the future of the John Muir Way - named after the conservationist who is regarded as the father of American national parks - which follows the East Lothian coast from his birthplace in Dunbar to Musselburgh.

Buyers of the 157 holiday homes, cottages and luxury flats in the Archerfield Estate, at prices of up to £1m, will have exclusive use of two custom-built golf courses. But they will have to pay a further £15,000 to obtain one of the 1,000 golf club memberships on offer and £1,000-a-year in green fees.

The plans have proved unpopular with residents in the nearby village of Dirleton. The development will encroach onto the footpath, which has already been closed to walkers. A bridge has also been removed, and locals trying to gain access through the estate claim they have been harassed by Archerfield security staff.

The Land Reform Act, which came into force in February, gives walkers, cyclists and horse riders a right of responsible access to almost all of the Scottish countryside. Local authorities have a duty to uphold access rights and are required to take court action against landowners who refuse to comply.

However, Doyle, the owner of Caledonian Heritable Ltd, which is building the development, said he regards the legislation as flawed and is prepared to challenge it in the courts.

“I am a big supporter of the access legislation, but where it is wrong, I would throw as much money as I can afford at it to take this all the way to the European court if necessary,” he said. “Where the legislation is badly written I will fight it tooth and nail.”

A campaign of opposition is being waged by the Ramblers Association and the Dirleton Village Association. They have held regular meetings on the issue and plan to submit a petition to East Lothian council demanding they act to reinstate access.

“Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to protect the immediate environment of their own house, to block off a popular and important trail of this kind is a retrograde step,” said Chris Smith, the former heritage secretary and president of the Ramblers’ Association.

“Anyone, no matter how limited their means, must be able to enjoy fresh air and pleasant countryside — this is an absolutely fundamental point.”

“Kevin Doyle is very keen to have a gated complex and keep people out,” said Nigel Bruce, the Dirleton association treasurer. “We have approached the council but all we receive is platitudes. The council are desperately keen to have a successful development.”

Gated communities are common in North America and South Africa, where wealthy residents counter the threat of criminals by buying in their own security. But until now the only British gated communities have been found in London.

The Ramblers’ Association has advised members to continue to exercise their rights and believe this to be an important test of the new access legislation. “It is really up to the council to bite the bullet and take him to court - he can’t just opt out,” said Helen Todd, access campaigner at the association.

A spokesman for East Lothian council said: “Archerfield have not been very co-operative with us and we have the legal powers to enforce access under the act, but that is very expensive and councils are reluctant. Archerfield is aware of that.”

Forte aiming to build luxury complex to rival Gleneagles

Emma Cowing, The Scotsman, 14 August 2000

SIR Rocco Forte is in the final stages of negotiating a deal to build a luxury hotel and leisure complex in Scotland worth £55 million.

A 1,000-acre site in East Lothian has already been singled out for a 180-bedroom five star hotel with three golf courses and a health spa. The hotel hopes to rival the world famous Gleneagles hotel in Perthshire.

Sir Rocco is hoping to tie up negotiations to buy the Archerfield estate, which lies several miles south of North Berwick, from its joint owners the Duke of Hamilton and the millionaire, Kevin Doyle. Mr Doyle currently owns Caledonian Heritable, which runs more than 100 bars in Scotland.

The Archerfield estate has an illustrious history stretching back to the 17th century, and still has on its grounds a derelict mansion dating back to that time. Winston Churchill has been among past visitors to the estate.

Sir Rocco, who is currently building a chain of luxury hotels across Europe through his company RE Hotels, hopes to restore the estate to its former glory through his hotel and leisure complex.

Mr Doyle owns 550 acres of the site and has already obtained planning permission for a housing development and golf course on the land he owns. He has confirmed he is actively pursuing a joint development with RE Hotels and said that negotiations could conclude within a month.

Sir Rocco has identified a gap in the market in the lack of luxury hotels in the area convenient for the nearby Muirfield championship golf course.

Sir Rocco established RF Hotels in 1996 after Forte Plc succumbed to a hostile £4 billion bid from Granada. His first purchase was Edinburgh’s Balmoral Hotel, and the company now owns seven five-star hotels including a newly-built one in Cardiff. Next spring he will open the Lowry in Manchester and hopes eventually to build the RE chain up to around 20 hotels.

He is also in the midst of creating a 700-acre hotel and golf complex in Sardinia, and has his eye on hotels in cities such as Pads, Madrid, Venice, Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and London. RE Hotels’ total turnover is now around £50 million and will rise as more of his newly founded hotels begin trading.

Sir Rocco has also embarked on an internet project, taking a stake in and becoming chairman of lobster.co.uk, an on-line retailer of luxury food products with an ambition to become the Harrods foodhall of the internet.

Forte eyes £60m golfing hotel complex at Muirfield

Ken Symon, The Scotsman, 19 May 1999

Sir Rocco Forte yesterday launched a development plan for a £60 million five-star golfing hotel near Muirfield which, he said, would rank alongside Gleneagles and Turnberry.

Sir Rocco, who has already submitted an outline planning application, last night detailed his plans to the local community, whose backing he is hoping to win to help the scheme to go ahead.

The hotel complex, which would be built on the Archerfield Estate, in East Lothian, would consist of a 180-bedroom hotel, three golf courses and a hi-tech health spa. Under the scheme the dilapidated Archerfield House would be renovated for use as a banqueting hail and conference facilities. Sir Rocco said yesterday: “What I have in mind would be a hotel along the lines of Gleneagles or Turnberry, except I would hope it would be better."

Far from the splendour of the planned hotel, Sir Rocco’s meeting with residents and other interested parties last night took place in a barn.

A rival planning application for the estate proposes a golf hotel and condominiums. It is thought that Sir Rocco’s planning application may fit more closely with the policies of the planning authority.

Sir Rocco, the former Forte chief who now runs RF Hotels, owns the prestigious Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. He is also looking for a site in Glasgow for a further hotel development. A recent consultants report commissioned by the Glasgow Development Agency highlighted the need for a five-star hotel in Glasgow.

Sir Rocco signed a £50 million multi-currency loan facility with the Bank of Scotland in February to help the company to grow its portfolio of luxury hotels.

He said the loan facility gave the company the firepower to continue the growth which had seen the build-up of a portfolio of eight luxury hotels during its first two years.

RF Hotels has worked with the Bank of Scotland since it bought the Balmoral, one of Edinburgh’s leading hotels, in 1997. The loan facility is repayable at the end of the 20-year term.

RF’s portfolio of hotels includes the Astoria, the Hotel D’Angleterre and St David’s Hotel in St Petersburg, Russia; and the Savoy Hotel in Florence and the Hotel Russie in Rome, which are both being refurbished and due to open early next year.