Golf complex delays 'have lost £10m in Open spin-off'.

Developers claim town will miss out on cash after protests slow progress

James Rougvie, The Scotsman, 12 May 2000

The developers of a proposed £50 million golfing complex have claimed that delays in starting the project - following protests from residents - have cost the local economy at least £10 million.

The Kingask development outside St Andrews - scene of this year's Open Championship in July - should have been ready by next month.

Now Dr Don Panoz, who heads the St Andrews Bay development company, says the local economy has missed out on a £10 million bonanza from visitors arriving for the Open.

He said: "The delays are responsible for us missing out on the millennium Open and the cost Fife the additional revenue all of these extra people would have generated".

The organisers of the Open have predicted that there could be 210,000 people arriving for the championship.

Campaigners had taken their protests to the Court of Session, in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to stop the development.

Since the plans were aired several years ago, claims have been made that the medieval town would turn into a "Disneyworld" of golf, with serious damage being inflicted on the area because of the increase in traffic.

St Andrews Bay has already begun to build a 209 bedroom hotel, conference centre and two championship golf courses on the site two miles south of the town.

However, the hopes of opening the complex in time for the Open have vanished.

Dr Panoz said: "We can only estimate what this missed opportunity will have cost, but we will see for sure when the Open comes next time to the Old Course".

In its first year of operation, the Kingask development was expected to generate £14 million and create 275 jobs, in addition to the 500 construction jobs already created.

Throughout last year, the proposals split St Andrews, with many protesters alleging that the Fife Council had infringed its own planning policies in an effort to shepherd the Kingask development though the planning system.

Objections flooded in from a number of influential national conservation bodies, and 300 residents objected individually to the council.

A group of St Andreans raised more than £80,000 to take the case to a judicial review in the Court of Session, but the Law Lords ruled that their challenge had come too late.

Dr Frank Riddell, who was the community council chairman during the controversy, said what had been lost during the delay was a lot of profit for the company.

He said: "We can understand Dr Panoz's sour grapes. We are weeping crocodile tears for him".

Dr Riddell said the Kingask complex would still put pressure on the streets, the health centre and schools in St Andrews.