Hotel and leisure project backed

The Courier, 22 January 1999

Reassurances on traffic movement have persuaded councillors to give their backing to multi-million pound proposals for a major new leisure and hotel development at the former Craigtoun Maternity Hospital, two miles outside St Andrews.

Members of Fife Council’s east area development committee had already agreed to three of the five applications for the magnificent mansion at a meeting in December, but asked for a final decision to be deferred until information could be obtained on “traffic logistics.”

The call was made despite transportation officials having envisaged no problem with an extra 100 vehicle movements per day on the already regularly used access road leading to Craigtoun Country Park and the Duke’s Course.

East area planning manager Mr Jim Birrell had previously explained to the committee that the plans from Golf Resorts International had met council policy “fairly and squarely.”

The applicants, who are under the same ownership as the Old Course Hotel and the Duke’s Course, had been seeking consent for change of use of the former maternity hospital to form ancillary accommodation and a leisure club.

Councillors were also being asked to approve plans for conversion of outbuildings, demolition of an extension and the building of 34 additional ancillary units in the grounds of the old hospital, which would be returned to its former glory.

Mr Birrell, who had recommended approval of all the applications, reminded members at this week's committee that a decision had been deferred so that councillors could obtain information on traffic generation from each constituent part of the development, the number of vehicles using Craigtoun Park, the legal status of the Craigtoun Park road and a possible reduction in the number of units being proposed.

A traffic impact study produced by McIlhagger Associates had predicted that additional summer road-users connected to the development each day would amount to 104 (60 resort guests, 25 spa visitors, 14 staff and 5 service vehicles) and in winter would be 93 (20 guests, 60 spa visitors, eight staff and five service vehicles).

Existing daily traffic on the access road amounts to 614 in summer (450 to Craigtoun Park, 60 to Duke’s Course) and 133 in winter (20 to Craigtoun Park, 20 to Duke’s Course).

Mr Birrell confirmed that the access road belonged to Fife Council, adding that “the access road and junction will cater adequately for the extra traffic generation, even on the occasional peak days of park usage.”

It was also indicated that 34 ancillary units would still be required by the developer, although the number of bedrooms would be 68 rather than 71 to diminish the “footprint” of the new-build units. This impact, however, would depend on the size of the bedrooms.

Fife Council’s head of transportation has also advised that a footpath needs to be provided from the bottom of the drive up to Craigtoun.

However, Mr Birrell said that, in his view, it “would not be reasonable” to insist that this be provided by the applicant by means of a legal agreement because, he said, the Craigtoun access road had traffic-calming provisions on it at present.

Commenting, Councillor Jimmy Braid said he wondered whether enough was being done to protect the long-term future of Craigtoun Park.

The committee’s decision to accept the proposals was unanimous.