430 acre golf plan revealed

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 1 April 1999

The latest of the hotel, golf and leisure projects planned by developers who are currently targeting St Andrews was yesterday revealed to be truly massive in scale.

Plans for a 430-acre site to the south of St Andrews at Feddinch have now been submitted, and the man behind them is the developer of the new £15 million Carnoustie hotel complex, Dundee business man Michael Johnston.

Although the application is only in outline form, a description of the proposal shows a 150/200 bedroom hotel, and conference facilities for 350 people.

In addition there would be an 18-hole golf course, a golf range, clubhouse, sports and leisure facilities, and a spa.

Perhaps most surprising of all is provision for the staggering total of 600 residential units which would be used by holidaymakers.

The application comes at a time when a smaller - but still extensive - £50 million scheme at Kingask has already been rejected by councillors, and reapplied for in a more detailed form by St Andrews Bay Development Ltd.

Deep concern has been expressed locally over the size and scale of the Kingask project - which envisages 208 bedrooms and conference facilities - and its potential traffic implications on the medieval town centre. There has also been considerable support from people who want to see jobs and investment coming to the St Andrews area.

Also at the consultation stage at the moment is a further scheme, with a golf and 80-unit residential element, at Scooniehill. The cost of this project by the St Andrews International Golf Club has been estimated at around £18 million.

It was controversially decided earlier this week that as part of formation of a strategic overview of proposals around St Andrews, all three applications would be called in to the central strategic development committee of Fife Council.

With local government elections only weeks away, and with Feddinch not yet at the consultation stage, it is now almost inevitable that decisions will be made after May 6 and the formation of a new council.

All three applications constitute departures from development plans, and special hearings will have to be heard to allow the developers and any objectors to put forward their arguments. No dates have yet been arranged for these hearings.

Recommendations will then be prepared by planning officials in East Fife, and all three applications will be brought before the local area development committee.

Councillors will be able to express a view of the applications, but the final decisions will be taken out of the hands of locally elected members and passed to the central committee.

This is , at the moment, dominated by members of the Labour administration, whose block vote ensured a 11-9 majority against a suggestion that policy be decided centrally and that decisions should be made at area level.