Appeal for legal action over Kingask site

The Courier, 22 Feb 2000

A leading North East Fife councillor has renewed her appeal for legal action over the number of construction lorries entering and leaving the site of the £50 million Kingask development near St Andrews.

The issue was raised at the end of last week by the Chairman of Fife Council’s east area development committee, Councillor Frances Melville, who has now followed up her comments with a strongly worded letter to Chief Executive Douglas Sinclair.

The councillor said that she had vigorously argued during the Kingask application process that the legal agreement put in place was "unenforceable".

In her letter to Mr Sinclair she has claimed that all that was said about problems of enforceability were now being proved correct.

She said that as the new chairman of the east area committee she was trying to raise the profile and public perception of the service and highlight its excellent qualities after what had been a very difficult year for everyone.

"We are all trying to move forward. This is not being made any easier with the prolonged and predicted difficulties with the developers not adhering to the strict controls as laid down by the council in the Section 75.

"As I stated last week the council bent over backwards, reluctantly and with great concern that the strategic development committee in allowing this Section 75 to be relaxed with regard to the number of HGV vehicle trips per day.

"I urge you that the council take immediate action if the developers cannot comply with our requirements," she said.

Councillor Melville went on to say that if this was not done the council and planning service would lose all credibility, or what remained of any credibility.

She said that her concerns were also for the safety of local communities which had to endure huge vehicles travelling on almost any road and at all times to and from Kingask.

She also made it clear in the letter that she was worried about future planning applications where strict conditions might be required, and travel movements would have to be controlled.

"How can the council be seen to be effective if it is seen to fall at the first major test. How can members of development committees have any faith in the reality and power of a Section 75 if they realise that developers will just ride roughshod over the local authority’s conditions.

"I cannot stress too strongly how I feel about this problem and I would say that it is in everybody’s interest that this matter is resolved quickly by Fife Council," she added.

It has been made clear by the authority that court action could take place within a matter of days if no agreement is reached with St Andrews Bay Development Ltd.

The developers have been found to be in breach of the terms of the legal agreement and an official council count of vehicles found that on one day recently over five times the permitted number of vehicle movements were taking place.

It was also discovered by the council that over 80 lorry movements had been seen on the residential Lamond Drive in St Andrews.