Gateway future finally settled

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 20 January 2004

The long and troubled saga of the imposing £9 million Gateway building at the western entrance to St Andrews seems to have been settled with its purchase by the university and the promise of partial community use.

This became clear yesterday as the new owner was announced and moves were immediately made to start talks involving the university, St Andrews Links Trust, and the Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board.

The centre, built for a private golf and leisure project which failed spectacularly then went into receivership in 2000, was first of all purchased by Dundee-based Keiller Estates.

That sale was accompanied by a flurry of publicity but hopes that the centre would quickly find occupants and also become the home of a university museum never came to fruition.

It has been lying empty for almost four years and has presumably gone to the university for a fraction of its cost.

The building stands on university-owned land. Principal and vice-chancellor Brian Lang made it clear yesterday that the centre would now be used primarily to provide research and teaching accommodation for internationally renowned undergraduate and post graduate programmes in business and management.

The ground floor of the Gateway will also serve as a university orientation and information centre designed to encourage public access and use by local partners.

“This development is firmly in line with the university’s continued strategy of investment in high quality facilities to support world-class teaching and research,” he said.

“I am delighted that we have been able to achieve such a favourable outcome to what has been a complex, but ultimately rewarding, process.

“The Gateway occupies one of the most prominent sites in St Andrews and it is fitting that we should be able to put it to good use for the long-term benefit of the community and the university.”

No mention was made in the university’s brief statement about the initial plans for a museum which had been intended to house historic and precious artefacts rarely seen in public.

However, a university spokesman said yesterday that although the university is still “actively investigating” provision of a museum, it is now unlikely to be within the Gateway.

The university has made it clear that work to prepare the building for use by the university and public is expected to be completed by September.

One of the bodies which has consistently expressed an interest in being represented in the new building is the Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board. Chief executive Patrick Laughlin said he was delighted that the future had been secured.

He said that the board would be meeting the university later this week for discussions about representation in the centre.

Mr Laughlin emphasised the fact that if the board does have a presence in the centre there will be no effect on the existing tourist information centre.

He said the existing centre was the fifth busiest in Scotland in terms of visitor numbers and bookings and is part of a national network. Any presence in the Gateway would be concentrating purely on St Andrews itself.

Last night a spokesman for St Andrews Links Trust said that the body had always felt that it would would be willing to talk about participation in a major information point in the ground floor of the building. Any orientation centre relating to St Andrews would have a large number of visitors and golf information would be important.

Councillor Frances Melville said she welcomed the fact that the “end is now in sight” for the protracted efforts to find a use for the building.

She said that disappointment over news that the museum would probably not be located in the building was tempered by the fact that the Gateway would at least be put to good use and filled with people.