Fears raised about impact of golf plans

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 10 January 2003

Proposals for a major new golf and leisure development at Feddinch, to the south west of St Andrews, have failed to overcome problems of “impact on the countryside.”

This has been claimed by the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland in an objection submitted to Fife Council over the £15 million project.

The plans put forward by the St Andrews International Golf Club involve a 244 acre site, a farmhouse, and the dilapidated Feddinch Mains steading, and involve the creation of a private golf club with an overseas and UK membership.

Included in the development would be a clubhouse, built on the site of the existing farm steading, that would feature 40 residential suites, leisure facilities including a swimming pool and spa, staff accommodation, conference rooms and a communications centre. The application is going through Fife Council’s planning process, but has already run into opposition.

In a letter of objection, the east Fife area secretary of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland, Glen Pride, said It was conceded that “to a limited extent” the proposal would assist economic growth and the tourist Industry.

But he added that the society continued to express doubts over the development’s international attraction and viability.

Mr Pride said there would be a new inland construction imprinted on a hillside 3.5 kilometers from St Andrews, and that it would occupy prime agricultural land.

Although the loss of such land might be regarded as not permanently irreversible, parts involving parking and maintenance areas and road and pathways would be irreversible.

“The society would like to stress that the appearance of golf courses, although they were ‘green’ developments, remained manicured and artificial,” he said.

Mr Pride also said that although the new building was referred to as a clubhouse, what would be regarded as a traditional clubhouse would occupy only a small fraction of the proposed building.

The rest, he said, would be residential and leisure accommodation equivalent to an 80-bedroom hotel which might on occasion accommodate over 300 members, guests and staff.

Turning to the scale of the proposals, Mr Pride said that much had been made of the argument that the new building covered the same area as the existing buildings and would be no higher than the farmhouse.

“However what must be recognised is that although the new building may conform to existing overall sizes, the visual impact of a three-storey residential block occupied by approximately 200 persons must be considerably greater than a heterogeneous collection of farm stores and conventional roofs.

Another aspect is the light pollution factor from lights within and around the building, as well as street and parking lighting. This will be in marked contrast to the present situation.”

Mr Pride acknowledged that the applicants had sited the Feddinch development further away from St Andrews and had made it less directly visible than their previous Scooniehill proposals. They had also, he said, concentrated the accommodation In one building.

“The society is of the opinion that these measures still fail to overcome the basic problem of such a development and its impact on this area of countryside, and thereby contravene planning policies" he concluded.

It is expected that the Feddinch proposals will be the subject of a special public hearing due to the fact that they represent a departure from the development plan.

This will allow the council to hear from the applicants, and from objectors, before any recommendation is made to councillors.