Creation of a partially-built golf course near St Andrews abandoned to become an overgrown eyesore could swing back into action.
The exclusive £25 million Feddinch Club near St Andrews was bunkered by councillors in May when they refused to renew planning permission for construction of a clubhouse.
But a Scottish Government reporter has announced his intention to overturn their decision.
Reporter John Martin said that if the green light is not given for the clubhouse – 41 luxury, members-only suites and a restaurant – the land will remain an unsightly blot on the landscape.
There has been no work on the course for two years – put down to the prolonged ill health of its director and poor weather last year – and critics say there has been little progress in its 12-year history.
The 18-hole course designed by former Open champion Tom Weiskopf has been shaped, with tees and greens levelled and bunkers excavated, but work halted and it has since grown wild.
Mr Martin said if planning permission for Scotia Investments was not renewed the golf course would probably never be completed as the developer depended upon the clubhouse to underwrite investment.
He said: “Without the clubhouse, it is unlikely that the appellants would complete the golf course alone and the current unsightly land forms would remain uncontrolled to the detriment of landscape and the green belt.
“Even if the land were sold on, without planning permission for the clubhouse there could be no guarantee that the development would ever be completed.”
Despite what he said were a “record of failures” to complete any of the stages of work to date he said he intended to renew the consent in November if agreement was struck over provision of a bond and other matters including construction traffic.
St Andrews councillor Brian Thomson said the decision was sensible.
He said: “Whilst I don’t believe there is demand for an additional golf course in the St Andrews area, the current state of the partly completed site is extremely unsatisfactory.
“As I stated when the north east planning committee considered the council’s response to the appeal in May, the refusal of the planning application would likely result in the golf course being not being completed, and left in its partly-complete, untidy condition, with little prospect of it being returned to its previous form of an agricultural landscape.”
Mr Thomson pointed out the application to renew consent attracted only eight objections, none from the local community council of Cameron.
He added: “I expect that many local residents will be pleased that there is now at least some prospect of the golf course being completed.”
The first company formed to pursue the Feddinch course, St Andrews International Golf Club, was dissolved earlier this year followed following concerns over the right to us the town’s name in the title.
A new company has been established, The Feddinch Club plc, which will trade as the Feddinch Club, St Andrews.
The directors hope to open the course in summer 2018.
Scotia Investments’ planning consultant previously stated that the firm had already invested several million pounds and that with planning permission there was every confidence the scheme will be completed.
