St Andrews gets the go-ahead for bid to keep the sea at bay

£200,000 scheme to protect course

Douglas Miller, The Scotsman, 12 October 2000

A major plan to save the endangered Jubilee course at St Andrews from the encroaching seas has been given the go-ahead.

The course, which is the venue for several major golf tournaments, has taken a pounding from the elements over the past year.

Several metres of land along the Eden Estuary, which borders the course, have vanished into the sea.

Now the links are only yards from the tidal edges of the dunes and fears have risen parts of them could be lost forever.

Last year St Andrews Links Trust announced plans to carry out major coastal improvement in a bid to resolve the problem.

However, the £200,000 scheme had to be put on hold after Fife Council refused to grant planning permission until a full feasibility study had been carried out.

Since then, strong westerly winds have continued to have a dramatic impact on the dunes which border the links. Part of the coastal footpath has been washed away by the tides close to the eighth fairway, leaving it dangerously exposed.

Yesterday Alan McGregor, general manager of the trust, announced Fife Council had granted permission to start work immediately to install permanent defences.

He said: “We have worked hard to reach a long-term solution satisfactory to everyone concerned. It is a great relief planning permission has been granted and we can install these defences before winter sets in.”

The main defence will be 100 metres of stone-filled wire structures along a stretch of unprotected dunes.

These will be sloping rather than the vertical type in place further along the estuary. The dunes will also be topped with 12,000 cubic metres of sand.

The dunes between the estuary and the golf courses are environmentally sensitive and are designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Mr McGregor said the trust had consulted closely with a number of expert bodies to come up with a plan which would protect the dunes and the links.

He said: “St Andrews links is a unique site of historical and cultural significance as well as one of the top sporting venues in Britain.

“The trust’s prime responsibility is to protect them.”