A St Andrews community councillor has accused Fife Council of misleading the public by pre-determining the outcome of a detailed planning application for a new Madras College at Pipeland.
Green belt campaigner Penny Uprichard, who has fought for decades to uphold the landscape setting of St Andrews, said that in the FIFEplan consultation reference to the new school “to be built at Pipeland” implies the council has already secured permission.
While planning permission in principle for the site is the subject of a judicial review, the detailed planning application for a new school at Pipeland has yet to go before the north east Fife planning committee.
Consultation on Fife’s Local Development Plan, called FIFEplan, began last Monday and runs until December 8. The plan represents the council’s “settled view” of what the final plan should be but members of the public still have a chance to express their views. Paper copies have been placed in local libraries but there is no drop-in event in St Andrews.
Miss Uprichard, who raised concerns at this week’s meeting of St Andrews Community Council, said: “Under the heading St Andrews Area Strategy, paragraph 61 states: ‘The importance of the St Andrews green belt is underpinned by TAYplan and the policies in this plan.
“The new secondary school to be built at Pipeland to replace Madras College has been an exceptional proposal justified by community needs and does not open the remainder of the green belt to unjustified development.
“The plan also provides planning guidance on the reuse of the existing Madras College sites at South Street and Kilrymont once the new school is built’.
“The reference to the new school ‘to be built at Pipeland’ implies that Fife Council has pre-determined the outcome of the application. It is still under consultation and was supposed to come to committee in September but has not yet been approved by councillors.
“There is also the strange reference to ‘unjustified development’. Who is going to decide whether development is ‘justified’ the Muir Group and Fife Council? Given the rate, and the way, in which, local plan policies are being overridden, this statement seems to flag up the intention to develop the southern hillside and the rest of (the) green belt.
“It would be unwise to depend on any protection from Fife Council (including its officials), who see the landscape setting of St Andrews simply as a development opportunity.”
Bill Lindsay, Fife Council planning service manager, said: “The FIFEplan Proposed Local Development Plan currently published for comment does refer to the Madras site at Pipeland as having planning permission in principle.
“This is based on the decision to approve the proposal for the new school. The Local Development Plan as written reflects a snapshot in time and will change, if required, to reflect the outcome of the legal challenge at the time the plan is adopted.”