Developers see St Andrews as 'pot of gold', inquiry told

The Courier, 25 November 2000

In recent years developers placing unremitting pressure on St Andrews see a “pot of gold waiting to be plundered”, the chairman of St Andrews Preservation trust, Dorothea Morrison, told the Scooniehill inquiry yesterday. Such developers saw no limit to numbers of free-spending visitors attracted by the “magic” of the town’s name, she added.

Mrs Morrison’s evidence was presented to a public inquiry to determine an appeal against refusal of planning consent for the 460-acre Scooniehill site, just south of St Andrews.

The applicants wish to build two golf courses, a clubhouse with leisure facilities and 80 residential suites for what would be a private club aimed predominantly at the US market.

Mrs Morrison said over-dependence on a wealthy US clientele was hazardous when that clientele was so sensitive to fluctuations in exchange rates, to terrorism fears and aircraft accidents.

She also said golfers who made the journey to the home of golf would not do so without a strong possibility of playing on the Old Course. That possibility had become remote, she said, as the Old Course had reached capacity.

Moreover, exploiting this market was fiercely competitive. Both the Old Course Hotel and Rusacks had built big extensions overlooking the Links, Kingsbarns was acquiring a formidable reputation and Kingask would soon be offering an additional “huge complex” with over 200 bedrooms.

She also raised concern over the inherent difficulties of outline planning consent and she said it was virtually impossible to assess environmental impact on skeletal details. “Bitter experience at Kingask has shown that when full planning consent was given, the plan bore very little resemblance to what had been agreed at the outline stage.”

On transport, she said the Fife Tourism Strategy said that St Andrews had almost reached saturation during peak summer months. Its medieval street plan could not be altered and more congestion could make tourists disinclined to visit.

“Scooniehill is a project of dubious viability. If it fails, a housing settlement will endure in a totally unacceptable position,” she said.

“The charm of St Andrews is of a medieval town steeped in history. Historic Scotland has called it the most important small historic burgh in Scotland. Even after suburban expansion it remains a medieval university town in scale unique in Britain and rare in Europe.

“It’s landscape attractiveness owes much to the way it is cradled by surrounding uplands, providing unique vistas both into and outwards from many points in the town and surrounding area. These virtues will be impossible to enjoy for tourists and residents alike if the town becomes clogged by unnecessary traffic and unbalanced by golfing interests.”

The trust also called as a witness economist Tony Jackson, who is a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee. He said that advice provided by the Scottish Tourist Board suggested that all such investments had substantial displacement effects on existing providers of similar capacity operating in the same location.

He added that there were good reasons for believing that because of the peculiar effect of the St Andrews market, such displacement effects would be even greater than normal.

Mr Jackson added that the development would, in his view, have only a marginal economic impact on Fife and St Andrews and it was not clear whether this impact would be positive or negative.

The developer, said Mr Jackson, had yet to demonstrate how his proposal would generate added value in the form of new international golfing tourism rather than simply relying on capturing part of the existing market.

Further support for the development, however, came yesterday from Cameron Community Council, which is the most directly affected community council.

Community councillor John Paul said that the community had been almost wholly dependent on agriculture and in recent years there had been a great and continuing decline in work opportunities.

The Scooniehill development, he said, would offer employment opportunities in greenkeeping, machine maintenance, catering and, in the long run, building maintenance trades.

Mr Paul also said there would be a benefit for wildlife, improvements to roads and rights of way and that construction traffic to and from the development would be minimal in comparison with what had been experienced recently.

The inquiry also heard a statement from North East Fife Local Healthcare Cooperative chairman, Dr John Bell, who highlighted existing difficulties in health provision in St Andrews.

Dr Bell said currently St Andrews Heath Centre struggled to maintain adequate standards of space for patients and staff, and it provided services for 21,000 patients. Various alterations had taken place over the years to mitigate problems and it was hoped the centre would be replaced in the “not too distant future”

Dr Bell also referred to difficulties at St Andrews Memorial Hospital, which he said had poor physical structure and inadequate parking. Although a new hospital was to be provided at an unknown future date, current ease of working and any significant development of services were hindered.

All evidence in the inquiry has now been heard. A site visit on Monday will be followed by final submissions on Tuesday.