Part of the land Fife Council is to buy for a new secondary school in St Andrews will be used for hospital car parking.
The local authority confirmed a car park for St Andrews Community Hospital will be created on the site at Pipeland it is to purchase from Muir Group.
Depending on the outcome of a legal challenge, the deal will be made in exchange for an area of on-street parking used for the hospital to allow improved access to the new £40 million Madras College.
It was revealed to The Courier after Councillor John Docherty, pictured, demanded to know what had happened to land at Pipeland he believed NHS Fife had bought before the hospital was built.
A document produced by NHS Fife in 2006 as plans were prepared for the new hospital showed an adjacent rectangular plot procured for future expansion.
However, the health authority said the final design of the hospital had resulted in all the land being used and that the building had been “future-proofed”.
Mr Docherty said repeated questions about the status of the land had been met with silence.
He said: “Why is one party saying this is no land then the other saying there is land which is being negotiated on?
“There are still questions which need answers.”
Mr Docherty claimed population growth in St Andrews in future years would require expansion of the hospital.
He said: “St Andrews is ultimately getting bigger and north-east Fife has the highest number of over-85s in Scotland.
“St Andrews Community Hospital will need to expand.
“There is need for a new school but I don’t believe in the interests of patient care that this is the right place.”
NHS Fife’s acting director of estates, facilities and capital services, Jim Rotheram, said: “The drawing in question is an early indicative outline of the St Andrews Community Hospital site, drawn up to help inform the initial development of plans.
“As the design progressed all of this land was incorporated into the hospital site.”
Council senior manager in property services, Alan Paul, said: “As part of traffic management measures a small amount of on-street parking used by the NHS for St Andrews Community Hospital will be moved on to a car park, which will be on land Fife Council is set to buy for the new Madras College.”