New bid to stymie golf centre

Michael Alexander, The Courier, 19 October 1999

A new bid is being made to launch a legal challenge against Fife Council’s handling and approval of the controversial golf resort, spa and conference centre now being developed at Kingask on the outskirts of St Andrews.

It was revealed yesterday that a group of seven objectors had obtained an opinion from senior counsel which says that there are “stateable grounds” for legal action over the way the £50 million scheme was approved.

If successful, this would mean that the developer would be forced to take the application back to Fife Council to be re-assessed, while it is also possible that the Scottish Executive would call for a public inquiry.

The action is being pursued because the group fears that, left unchecked, other proposed golf developments in the area are more likely to get approval with potentially “disastrous” consequences for St Andrews, particularly from huge traffic increases.

A new application is currently with Fife Council planners for Scooniehill and it is believed that the Feddinch developers are discussing a re-submission of their plans.

While the local authority has stressed that such applications would be considered on their own merits, the objectors fear that If they were refused by the council then the developers, given the example of Kingask, could win on appeal.

To proceed with their campaign the objectors are therefore calling on everyone who cares for St Andrews and its countryside to help them raise £100,000 towards the costs of taking legal action. Pledges of £28,300 have already been received from individuals, including an “extremely generous contribution” from The St Andrews Preservation Trust. Campaigners, operating under the banner of The Review Funding Association, hope that the full amount can be raised as quickly as possible.

The move - the latest swell in a sea of controversy surrounding Kingask - comes days after an independent report found no evidence that council officials in Fife were forced to “trim their reports, come in line or stay silent” during the planning process. However, the report did criticise other specific aspects of Fife Council’s handling of the matter as well as singling out east area development committee chairman Peter Douglas for “throwaway remarks.”

The Kingask application, eventually approved by the centrally based strategic development committee, had a stormy passage through the planning processes of the council.

Work is already under way on the Kingask site and just last Wednesday the developer, St Andrews Bay Development Ltd, held an official ground-breaking ceremony.

Yesterday, as the objectors’ group sent out letters and pledge forms to 800 individuals, they expressed confidence that this legal challenge would make more headway than a similar exercise considered by St Andrews Community Council in late summer.

It was stressed that if the case was lost then the group would have to pay most, if not all, of the legal expenses involved in the action. They will not ask for an interdict to stop the work at Kingask and therefore will not be liable for damages.

The judicial review process allows certain types of planning application to come before the courts where it is felt that illegality, irrationality or procedural impropriety has occurred. Decisions can only be challenged on points of law.

Those behind The Review Funding Association are Mrs June Baxter, Dr Ian Goudie, Mrs Margaret Goudie, Mr Tony Hardie, Mrs Jennifer Hopgood, Professor Terence Lee and Miss Penny Uprichard.

A spokesperson said, “We are asking a great deal, but we are up against £50 million and time is desperately short - the developers are working on site. It is late, but not too late to go to law. We are therefore appealing to people to help us defend St Andrews and our countryside and to keep alive the hope of a green belt.”

Commenting last night, the chairman of Fife Council’s strategic development committee Bill Brand expressed “disappointment” that the action was being considered.

He said, “We have said time and again that we are confident all the golf development planning applications were handled within the strictest planning protocol and we have every faith that the processes followed will stand up to the closest scrutiny.”

Yesterday St Andrews Bay Development Ltd declined to comment on the legal challenge.