Anxious wait for judgement on Kingask plans

The Courier, 4 March 2000

Campaigners bidding to halt work on the £50 million Kingask resort complex near St Andrews will find out within the next two weeks whether of not they have succeeded in their aims.

A Court of Session judicial review has now been completed and members of the Review Funding Association, Fife Council and St Andrews Bay Development Company will have an anxious wait for the result.

The legal action, which is thought to mark the first such challenge to the granting of planning consent by a local authority, has been heard by Lord Bonomy during several days of submissions.

The objectors have raised a number of issues, one of which is that the council did not order the developers to prepare a statement on the environmental impact that the plan would have.

The objectors have also claimed that before granting the application the council did not notify the Scottish Secretary or First Minister of the plan and that intelligible reasons for giving the plan the go-ahead had not been fully provided.

The council, which contested the claims, has maintained that it has fulfilled all of the statutory duties required of it when considering the plan.

It has also challenged the rights of the residents involved to bring the action and has stated that because of the delay in raising proceedings, the move to overturn the granting of planning permission should be refused.

The case was raised after months of controversy, claim and counter-claim about the planning application for the coastal site and Lord Bonomy has indicated that his judgement will be issued by the end of next week.