Green belt fears over golf plans

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 3 February 2003

Planning approval for a major golf and leisure development at Feddinch Mains, near St Andrews, would result in a change in the landscape setting of the town.

This has been claimed by the St Andrews Green Belt Forum in an objection submitted against proposals for the £15 million development.

The site, south-west of the town, has been targeted by the St Andrews International Golf Club, which wants to create a private golf club aimed at the overseas and UK market.

The proposals include a golf course, 40 luxury accommodation suites and a swimming pool and spa, communications centre, conference rooms and bar and restaurant.

In its objection, the Green Belt Forum says the project would pre-empt the setting of green belt boundaries intended to maintain the town’s landscape setting.

In the letter to Fife Council, vice-chairman Terence Lee also questions the requirement for a golf course.

He said the Links Trust and private courses such as the Duke’s Course and St Andrews Bay already catered for the demands of locals and visitors.

If Feddinch were to reach its ambitious target for membership, he said, it might be at the expense of other local courses.

It has also been claimed by the forum that a number of assertions in the application do not seem to accord with the plans submitted.

Professor Lee has questioned statements that the clubhouse would occupy no more ground than that currently used by the farmhouse and steading, and that the height of the clubhouse would be the same as the farmhouse.

On the question of substantial economic gain, the professor said these claims were rendered dubious not only by low unemployment levels but by the fact the authentic “St Andrews experience” undoubtedly included a round on the Old course.

This, he said, was already at capacity, and new visitors could only be accommodated at the expense of others.

It is also claimed that the present structure elan says new golf courses or extensions would be supported provided they were required for identified unmet demand, are constructed substantially on brownfield land, and demonstrated that demand could not be met on an existing course.

The Feddinch plans, he said, did not meet any of these stipulations.

The applicants, however, have already claimed that despite being the world’s “golfing mecca,” St Andrews does not have a private golf club with its own course.

It has been claimed that given this gap in the market, membership would be a “most attractive prospect.”

In a bid to ensure viability is not in question, the developers have agreed to a legal agreement restricting commencement of work until £7 million is committed in membership sales. They have also agreed to put in place a performance bond guaranteeing the completion of the development.