'In principle' support sought for golf course

Michael Alexander, The Courier, 15 December 2003

A new golf course at St Andrews may come a step nearer today.

Kingdom of Fife Tourist Board chief executive Patrick Laughlin will today ask board members to give their “in principle” support to the application by St Andrews Links Trust for an 18-hole golf course, practice area and clubhouse beside Brownhills - but will call for an independent economic impact assessment before final consent is granted.

Such a request will be to satisfy all concerned that creating a new course will help the overall golf tourism market for St Andrews and not just “cannibalise” existing courses and erode the profitability of golf tourism-reliant businesses.

Members will be asked to re-emphasise their support for the “St Andrews World Class” vision that aims by 2013 to create a destination at which every visitor experience, including golf, is of “high quality” and offers “value for money.”

They will also be asked to consider the views of many local tourism operators, who are said to be “uneasy” about the “commerciality” of the proposed development - many existing courses around St Andrews have spare capacity. Some have said that, by proposing another course, the trust is already operating “outwith the spirit,” if not the actual law, of the act under which it was established.

The comments are featured in a report by Mr Laughlin, who will today ask his directors to comment on the golf course and another “complex and potentially contentious” planning application pending with Fife Council.

Under standing policy, the tourist board does not make any comment on any planning application unless specifically asked to do so by the council, and when there is a response the chief executive will normally do this himself.

For the first time since December 1998, when board directors were asked to debate proposals for the St Andrews Bay Golf Resort, members will be asked at today’s board meeting in Markinch to help prepare an official response.

The applications under the spotlight - which have already led to much debate in north-east Fife - are St Andrews Links Trust’s plan for the golf course, practice area and clubhouse next to Brownhills and Scottish Power’s plans for 17 large wind turbines and infrastructure at Clatto Hill, near Cupar.

A report to the tourist board says it is “a coincidence” that two such issues should arise simultaneously and that it would be “impractical” for board members to give a detailed response - but the board is being asked to field comments on several bullet points that will then be prepared by the chief executive and submitted to Fife Council.

On the golf course application, the board will express its in principle support for the proposal but call for an independent economic impact assessment to be carried out before final consent is granted.

On Scottish Power’s plans for 17 large wind turbines and outbuildings on a “fairly prominent ridge” in central Fife - the turbine hubs are 60 metres high and the tip of each rotor blade reaches 93 metres - generating on average power for 18,000 homes, the board will be asked that its response will:

• Focus solely on potential impacts on visitors and Fife tourism businesses and not express opinions on environment, ecology, transport or economic viability

• Consider the results of VisitScotland visitor research on the impacts of wind farms (published in 2002) proved inconclusive;

• Reflect levels of concern expressed by tourism businesses;

• Note a call for a Scotland-wide planning strategy on wind farms;

• Consider there are already many man-made visual intrusions in Fife, albeit on a different scale;

• Accept that the proposed site is probably the best available in Fife from a tourism perspective to keep visual impact to a minimum;

• Recognise that the tourist industry, like other sectors, must place more emphasis on sustainable energy generation.

Accordingly, the board will not object to the proposal.

These points, combined with any comment made at today’s meeting, will be flnalised and sent to the council, it is hoped, by Christmas.