Fife Council has been accused of paying well over the odds for the St Andrews farmland on which a new secondary school will be built.
It has agreed to stump up £1.8 million for 30 acres of prime agricultural land at Pipeland Farm, on the town’s southern boundary.
Conservative councillor Andy Heer claimed the site was worth only £150,000, a fraction of what the authority is to pay owner Muir Group for it.
As it is part of the town’s green belt, development of the land is severely restricted, affecting its market value.
Mr Heer said £1.8 million approved by the district valuer was a “jaw-dropping” price, amounting to £60,000 per acre and 10 times the going rate for top-grade agricultural land.
He said: “This is 30 acres of farmland in the greenbelt. You can’t build houses on it, you can’t put a golf course on it. Why are we paying £1.8 million for it?
“We all want to see a new school built as soon as possible but that doesn’t excuse paying far more than the land is worth.”
As the cost was revealed to the council’s education, social and communities scrutiny committee yesterday, SNP councillor David Mogg demanded a report be prepared detailing the background to the purchase.
He also questioned whether the sum which will be included in the £42 million budget for replacing Madras College would compromise facilities for pupils.
He said: “To say the developers have us over a barrel is probably the least professional way of saying it but they must have paid less than £150,000 for this land in the first place and they are getting £1.8 million for it. I’m not happy we seem to be paying over the odds for a piece of land.
“What are we going to have to cut back on in the building of the school to accommodate (paying) £1.8 million for the land?”
Education spokesperson, Bryan Poole, insisted the council had neither been held over a barrel nor paid too much. Choosing the site has been a long, drawn-out process fraught with controversy. Urging against dwelling on the land cost, he said: “We are in great danger of reopening something when we are making good progress. We need to move on.
“That community has been waiting for a school for goodness knows how long. The price was negotiated between the council and the owner and it was accepted by the district valuer.”
The committee voted against Mr Mogg’s request for a report.
Property services senior manager Alan Paul denied the council had had a weak negotiating hand but said that lawyers advised the pursuit of a compulsory purchase order would likely be unsuccessful. “Negotiations had to bear that in mind,” he said.
All sorts of factors were taken into account during the setting of the price, he said, including the land’s proximity to the town, availability of services and the fact that before its recent inclusion in the green belt, a sizeable portion had been set aside for commercial development.
He added: “We still expect to be able to be build an excellent facility for the budget.”
The replacement of Madras College, presently split over two sites, is at the first stage of the planning process. Fife Council has formally stated its intention to develop known as lodging a proposal of application notice and the next stage is submitting a planning application.
It is intended pupils will be in the new building in the 2016/17 academic year.