Council accused over green belt

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 29 March 2004

Fife Council has been accused of acting totally against previous top-level and apparently cast-iron assurances about development proposals for land which will form part of the long awaited green belt for St Andrews.

At the weekend one of the town’s community councillors, Penny Uprichard, said that recommendations for approval of major new golf and leisure related projects in countryside outside the town are a complete contradiction of statements made by Fife’s chief executive Douglas Sinclair and recently retired head of planning David Rae.

The claim has been made as councillors prepare to discuss two separate applications - one from St Andrews Links Trust and the other from the St Andrews International Golf Club - for sites to the south-east and south-west of the town.

Miss Uprichard, who is also a member of the Green Belt Forum, said yesterday that former head of planning Mr Rae had made it very clear, as reported in The Courier in November, 2002, that “development proposals submitted in advance of the establishment of green belt boundaries will be regarded as premature.”

She said that exactly the same comment had been made by the current chief executive, Douglas Sinclair, in a letter written to MP Menzies Campbell at the same time.

The comments were made as various bodies, including the community council and preservation trust, along with Mr Campbell and the chairman of the development committee, Frances Melville, attempted without success to persuade the council to speed up the green belt process.

Both of the proposed developments lie within the likely green belt boundary, and both have been recommended for approval in reports to be considered tomorrow.

“It is just not acceptable for the council to move the goalposts as it sees fit. We were given promises by the chief executive and the now retired head of planning, and the council should stick by them.

“There was no ambiguity in the statements made by these officials as calls for early action to determine the green belt were rejected. This is just the sort of thing that people have been afraid of all along,” said Miss Uprichard.

In reports for tomorrow’s meeting, senior planning official Nick Brian, the development control team leader in the east area, has made reference to the green belt issue.

He said that Scottish Natural Heritage had raised the issue of cumulative impact of both proposals, and possible prejudicial or premature impact on the green belt issue. The two application sites did not lie on the same approach road into St Andrews, he added.

“As a consequence there are no positions where the two courses would be seen in the same viewpoint, and they would not appear in such a viewing of the historic landscape setting of St Andrews.”

The official also made it clear that through submission of a landscape and visual impact assessment, and consultation with SNH, it was felt that neither development would be prejudicial to the preparation of the green belt and its boundaries through the east Fife local plan process.