Council give-up Kingask battle

Cost implications a factor as Kingask fight is halted

Craig Nisbet, The Citizen, 6 August 1999

St Andrews Community Council have decided not to press any further with legal action in the wake of Fife Council approving plans for the multi-million pound golf hotel and leisure development at Kingask.

In an unprecedented move, an extraordinary meeting of the community council was held on Monday following a call from concerned members of the public asking the council to consider top legal opinion on whether or not there were grounds to fight the Kingask approval. The ‘Citizen’ can now reveal that a wealthy property company financed the bulk of the cost of top Counsel opinion on the merits of fighting Fife Council’s decision on Kingask.

Capta Co. Ltd - a trust which rents hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property at The Grange on behalf of absentee landlords - footed the lion’s share of the bill for legal advice that led to Monday’s special meeting.

Before the meeting got down to the business of considering legal advice, there was disquiet among some members about the people who had been specially invited to the meeting - MP Menzies Campbell, MSP lain Smith, Euro MP John Purvis, the Chairman of St Andrews Preservation Trust and Fife Councillor Peter Douglas, Chairman of Fife’s East Area Development Committee.

Community Councillor Dennis McDonald argued that they had only been invited because they opposed the Kingask plans. He questioned why other politicians living locally - namely Catherine Taylor MEP and MP Henry McLeish - had not been invited and the impression was that the meeting would take the form of a “kangaroo court.”

Councillor Hugh Gray also argued that the legal opinion being put to the council should be heard by community councillors only, or by all members of the public attending. Around thirty people squeezed into the public benches in the Burgh chambers for the meeting.

In the event, Cupar solicitor Robin Bennett, who was acting for the people who had sought and paid for Counsel’s opinion, indicated that what he had to say should be considered in private and both public and press were asked to leave the meeting.

Following the private session, Community Council Chairman Dr Frank Riddell, announced that it had been decided to take the matter no further. In a short statement he said - “Counsel’s opinion was that although there were stateable grounds for raising proceedings against the Fife Council for its handling of the Kingask decision the community council would be best advised not to launch action for judicial review.

“In view of this opinion and the financial implications it contained, the community council have decided not to proceed further with this matter.

Dr Riddell also offered the council’s apologies to members of the public who had attended the meeting only to be told, within 20 minutes, that the matter would be taken in private - “The community council regrets that it had to conduct part of the business of the meeting in private, but this was rendered necessary because of the content of counsel’s opinion.

“We wish to thank those who have fought this long and hard battle with us. We regret having to abandon the struggle at this point but it would have been imprudent to have continued.”

With preparatory building works already underway on the Kingask site, the principals behind St Andrews Bay Development Ltd said that they were please with the council’s decision.

lain MacKinnon, Operations Director for the development company, attended the brief public section of Monday’s extraordinary meeting, and said later that the company was “naturally” pleased that no further action is to be taken. “We regard that decision as no more than good sense”, he added.

“In our view, Fife Council acted throughout the planning process with the utmost propriety and regard for correct procedures. As this planning application was subject to such unprecedented levels of public scrutiny, it is clear the overwhelming majority of the public in Fife have no anxieties about the manner in which the planning process was conducted, or of the outcome.”

With the fight over the Kingask development now subsiding, Mr MacKinnon said he had the “Highest regard for the dedication and energy of those who sensibly expressed their concerns and opposition to the development, as they had every right to do.

“The company would hope that such qualities could now be channelled into working together to ensure St Andrews Bay becomes a part of this community and of which it can be proud.”

Major work on the new Kingask scheme is now anticipated to start next month, and Mr MacKinnon stressed that the developers remain, as always, “committed to providing a successful facility which will be of permanent benefit to the community and to the economic vitality of all of Fife.”