North East Fife councillors will today be asked to make a decision on a detailed planning application for a new, single-site Madras College at Pipeland.
The application by Fife Council for a secondary school with associated facilities including access, car parking/bus stance, playing fields, regarding of land and alterations to a path is being recommended for conditional approval by planning officials in a report to the local authority’s north-east planning committee.
Planning permission in principle for the greenbelt site on the south side of St Andrews was previously approved by the full council and backed by the Scottish Government, which decided not to call in the decision.
The council’s handling of the application so far, however, is the subject of a judicial review due to be heard at the Court of Session in Edinburgh next week.
In her report recommending conditional approval of the detailed planning application, case officer Elspeth Cook said: “As the principle of developing a school of this size, shape and design has been approved in principle, the decision on this application has concentrated on whether the final design choices for the building and the engineering solutions have met the requirements of the planning permission in principle.Michael Alexander is at today’s council meeting. Click here for live updates.“In this case it is considered that the details are acceptable and that approval can be granted.
“It should be noted that the conditions on the planning permission in principle do not have to be repeated on this permission, as the two decisions require to be read in conjunction with each other.”
The proposal for the 12.7-hectare prime agricultural land site north of Pipeland Farm is for a 1,450-pupil secondary school building including sports halls, offices, classrooms and dining facilities; the upgrading of the access from Largo Road as it passes the community hospital; parking for the school and for the hospital; a bus stance; a set of six playing fields/sports pitches including an all-weather floodlit pitch; regarding of the land to facilitate the school; upgrading of a grassed right of way to provide a pedestrian access to the school from Scooniehill Road; two sustainable drainage system ponds along with a range of drainage infrastructure elements; demolition of the former Scottish Water buildings at Pipeland and the rerouting of a gas supply line.
Changes to the original proposal include an alteration to the proposed right of way route. Amendments were also made in October to the school design, parking and drainage proposals.
The decision by the council to pursue the Pipeland site for a much-needed new school has led to bitter divisions in the town between those who believe the development in greenbelt land will destroy the landscape setting of St Andrews and those who believe educational needs must take priority.
The town’s community council, for example, objects to the development as it is significantly contrary to the development plan and is “unjustified development in greenbelt”.
Other concerns raised in the 137 letters of objection include road and pedestrian safety, residential amenity, flood risk and lack of a swimming pool.
A total of 115 representations were submitted in support of the proposal. In the main these were from individuals but some came from organisations, including Balmerino Parent Council, Canongate Parent Council and Newport Parent Council.
The report emphasises that only those matters relating to the design and implementation of this application assessment are relevant.
In other words, the matters relating to whether the school should be at this site, the merit of the other potential sites in St Andrews and the transport routes cannot be considered.