Leisure complex not guaranteed water connection

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 31 March 2007

Scottish Water will not guarantee connection to a major new leisure development near St Andrews until a satisfactory solution is identified in relation to any supply issues.

That has been made clear to Fairmont St Andrews, which is seeking planning permission for a large expansion to its hotel, leisure and golf complex on a coastal site.

The comment has come in a letter from Scottish Water which stated that, while it will not object to the planning application, it has to assess the impact on infrastructure.

Fairmont wants to build 37 holiday lodges and redevelop a farm steading to form a spa, holiday apartments and a restaurant.

Scottish Water's planning and development officer Robert MacKenzie said in a letter that there may be issues in the water network and it may be necessary for Fairmont to ensure the development will not have any detrimental impact on customers.

He said that should there be any issues, such as low pressure, Fairmont would have to provide a solution that would prevent any further impact.

In the environmental statement accompanying its planning application Fairmont said it intends to provide an underground cold water storage tank which would provide a minimum of 36 hours of storage.

The tank would be filled at off-peak times at an agreed flow rate, which would be assessed to ensure no effect on existing customers. This rate, said the applicant, would be determined through an impact assessment study.

"In a worst case scenario, should the study identify that an inadequate infill off-peak flow cannot sustain the development without affecting existing customers, an upgrade to the water mains infrastructure may require to be considered."

Resident Nick Lunan, of Torrie House, at nearby Kingsbarns, has written a lengthy objection letter, and one of the issues he refers to is water.

He said there is no spare daytime capacity in that part of Fife and residents of Kingsbarns and Boarhills, and the hotel complex, have various water pressures throughout the day. He said engineers working in the area recently had found the hotel draws entirely from the Kingsbarns end of the system, which was initially designed to cope with quite modest "rural demand."

Mr Lunan added that the draft local plan envisages "significant housing" for Kingsbarns and decision makers might want to consider the implications for scarce local-need housing of the investment opportunity housing planned at the hotel.

The proposal, he said, is to spread the load on the already over-stretched hinterland system by feeding water into an on-site storage tank at night.

"There will be no direct connection between the mains and the proposed development and therefore no backup should the system fail," he said.