Campaigner set for new legal challenge to structure plan
The future of Fife's structure plan has been thrown into doubt once more with the news that it is to be the subject of a further legal challenge.
- By Gordon Berry
- Published in the Courier : 20.08.10
- Published online : 20.08.10 @ 10.02am
St Andrews resident and campaigner Penny Uprichard has revealed that she is to appeal against a recent Court of Session decision by Lord Uist which appeared to bring her fight against massive housing development in St Andrews to an end.
Now Miss Uprichard says she is about to embark on another legal journey which will see Lord Uist's decision examined by a panel of three of the country's top judges in the Inner Court of the Court of Session.
She is taking the action as she believes it is wrong for a few unelected officials in Fife Council and the Scottish Government to draft and push through proposals which will "overwhelm and destroy St Andrews."
She says St Andrews is now in the "last chance saloon" — with thousands of objections to the structure and local plans being ignored and the minimum of 1000 houses being built.
"The TAYplan authority now intends to include the structure plan without re-assessment or recognition of the amount of opposition in north-east Fife. Our councillors, who are now putting in very strong comments on the local plan, have on occasion been overriden by officials and have been discouraged from opposing development."
Miss Uprichard is still waiting to find out the details of costs from her initial challenge but she said that the question is now likely to be deferred until the appeal is heard. She wants to make it clear that none of the pledges made by residents to help her initial action will be used for the appeal.
"To misquote a current advertisement, it's for St Andrews, 'because you're worth it'," she said.
News of the appeal came in the wake of a meeting of the council's north-east Fife area committee, where there was widespread concern over the implications of the structure plan for future development in Cupar and St Andrews.
In St Andrews councillors want to see more use of brownfield sites and less development in the "St Andrews west" expansion area defined in the finalised local plan. They also want to see the planned 1090 houses in St Andrews West reduced to take account of brownfield development elsewhere in the town.
Before Miss Uprichard lost what is now the first stage of her legal action the council's head of development services warned that success could lead to the linked St Andrews and East Fife local plan being "abandoned or radically altered."
The council described the original decision by Lord Uist as being positive news and said it could now move ahead with confidence to ensure that policy infrastructure is put in place.
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