Councillors ditch £1m town centre scheme

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 12 January 2005

Plans for a deeply controversial £1 million environmental scheme in the historic centre of St Andrews were yesterday unceremoniously dumped by councillors.

Amid bitter criticism about levels of consultation and the general handling of the plans for South Street in St Andrews, members of Fife Council’s east area development committee voted by the hefty margin of 13-3 to throw out the planning application from Scottish Enterprise Fife.

The proposals have been the subject of intensive debate in the town over the past few months, and the strength of feeling among local businesses and residents was largely echoed as councillors were at last allowed to express their opinions in a public forum.

The whole process was variously described as a PR disaster, a dreadful mess, and even the “town hall gone mad,” and the meeting left no doubt among listeners in a packed public gallery that councillors did not want to see a repeat of the situation.

It was claimed that the “unelected” enterprise company and the council, which was to partly fund the scheme, had come up with a highly unpopular scheme.

The mood was captured by the committee chairperson, Councillor Frances Melville, who said that while local people wanted to see things done for the town, this should involve provision of what local people wanted and should involve proper consultation.

The work was to have included new street lights and paving, alterations to pavements, changes to parking arrangements with a loss of 18 spaces, provision of street furniture and, perhaps most controversially, the felling and replacement of the highly distinctive lime trees which line the street.

There was an outcry from local businesses, and the council received a 1000-signature petition.

Issues raised in objections cover a wide range of subjects, including detriment to the conservation area, a threat to the viability of the town centre, “Disneyfication” in the marketing of the town and a lack of public consultation.

The committee had been asked in a report from principal planner Elspeth Cook to approve the plans before they were sent to the Scottish Executive for a final decision.

She had said that the main issue was whether the overall improvement to the street scene, and the investment in high-quality materials, justified the tree felling and the loss of car parking spaces.

St Andrews councillor Bill Sangster, whose ward covers the town centre, said that there could have been an excellent opportunity to relieve that part of South Street of many of its problems, and that through Scottish Enterprise Fife public money was involved.

“On such a massive project, which involves the lives and livelihoods of residents, businesses, visitors, tourism and the university that our city so much depends on, you would think that the public ought to have been involved right from the start,” he said.

Counclllor Mike Scott-Hayward described the whole process as “chaotic” and criticised the fact that elected councillors had been given no opportunity to participate in formulation of the plans.

He said that a “gang of modernisers” had visited the plans upon the town, and the council should be taking a close look at how such things were done.

But another St Andrews member, Councillor Jane Ann Liston, said there was a lot of good in the application but there had also been a lot of misunderstanding about what was intended.