A property swap for a new Madras College would have seen Fife Council hand over a building worth 10 times the land received in return, a court has heard.
Negotiations between the local authority and St Andrews University over an exchange of university land at North Haugh and the school’s South Street campus could not reach an agreement.
It emerged at an appeal hearing in the Court of Session yesterday that the historic and listed South Street building in the town centre was valued at £3.16 million, while the North Haugh plot was worth £315,000.
The appeal by St Andrews Environmental Protection Association Limited (Stepal) is against Lord Doherty’s rejection last year of its petition for judicial review of the council’s decision to build the £42.7m replacement for Madras College on land north of Pipeland Farm.
The group claims the council was wrong to consider another possible location, North Haugh and Station Park, as a split site.
It also claims Lord Doherty erred in holding that North Haugh and Station Park, which are divided by the A91,
were not ruled out because they were considered a single site without any or adequate consideration of other factors.
Representing the council, QC Douglas Armstrong said: “There have clearly been negotiations over a number of years in relation to not just one site but others and, ultimately, no agreement has been reached.”
He said North Haugh and South Street were assessed by the district valuer with a view to an excambion exchange, and constraints of the former led to its valuation of £315,000.
QC for Stepal James Findlay, however, pointed to evidence of university corporate communications director Niall Scott who said the North Haugh remained and always had been available.
During the two-day hearing Mr Armstrong accepted that councillors would have been misled if a report recommending planning permission for the Pipeland site gave the impression that Pipeland was the only option.
But he argued that North Haugh and Station Park had been considered together but ruled out because the council wanted the playing fields immediately adjacent to the buildings.
Mr Findlay argued Pipeland, which has a right of way running through it, could also be considered a split site and that playing fields there would be as far from one side of the school than those at Station Park would be through an underpass from North Haugh.
The legal challenge has delayed construction of the school, given planning consent in May 2014, which will replace Madras College’s South Street and Kilrymont campuses.
The appeal before Lord Drummond Young, Lord Malcolm and Lady Clark of Calton concluded on Wednesday, but it may be three months before their findings are published.