Top QC to fight golf development

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 23 November 1999

The chairman of St Andrews Community Council yesterday said that he wished “all success” to the group fighting to stop the £50 million hotel, conference, golf and leisure development under construction at Kingask, near St Andrews.

It was revealed at the weekend that the St Andrews-based Review Funding Association has engaged a top QC, Lord Mackay of Drumadoon, as it prepares to challenge Fife Council in the Court of Session.

The group is seeking a judicial review of the granting of planning permission to St Andrews Bay Development Ltd and is claiming that the local authority acted illegally during the planning process.

A £100,000 fund-raising appeal launched by the group in a bid to cover the possible legal costs involved in the challenge is already halfway to its target.

It is being claimed that the council failed to consider properly the impact the development would have on the environment and that it made a significant departure from development plans without notifying the Scottish Secretary.

The question of judicial review was raised by the community council not long after the go-ahead for the scheme was given by the council’s centrally-based strategic development committee.

The body eventually decided not to take the matter further, however, mainly because of the huge costs that could be involved.

Yesterday chairman Dr Frank Riddell made it clear that the QC consulted by the community council had - like counsel engaged by the Review Funding Association - found that there were “stateable grounds” for seeking a judicial review.

“Counsel said that he was very sceptical about the way the council had handled the process.

“I hope that a thorough judicial investigation will allow the court to get to the bottom of the whole issue.

“People will not stand idly by and allow the environment of St Andrews to be degraded.”

A hearing has been arranged of a Court of Session sitting on January 12 next year.