A multi-million pound St Andrews golf and leisure development which was approved during the property boom years has been stopped dead in its already faltering tracks.
Fife Council’s north-east area committee voted narrowly to reject an application for a time extension for St Andrews International Golf Ltd, a company which is now in liquidation.
The plans for land to the south-west of the town at Feddinch were first approved in 2005, and they involved the creation of luxury accommodation, a private golf course and other leisure facilities.
From the very start, though, a major condition of approval was the provision of a £6 million bond to Fife Council, which was aimed at safeguarding the position if problems arose and resulted in the site having to be cleared or completed by someone else.
There was also to be evidence of £7 million investment and £100,000 for any road damage caused during the construction phase.
The property fell into the hands of US business tycoon Tim Blixseth, who then handed it over to his wife as part of a divorce settlement.
Now the future of the land is in the hands of receivers, who in turn appear to have handed the task of progressing the application to a company called Scotia Investments, which had provisionally agreed to acquire the site and move forward with development.
The only work so far done on the site has been unauthorised, in the form of an access road and drainage works.ExtendedThe original planning consent was extended until December 2008, after which the council was unable to make contact with the applicants or their representatives.
Then councillors had been asked by officials to approve a further extension until later this year, but at Wednesday’s meeting it was clear that there is still considerable concern about the whole situation.
St Andrews member Frances Melville, who chaired the planning committee when the application was first approved, said the financial climate had completely changed, and no one had thought at the time that the local plan for the area would still be under discussion.
Councillor Melville said the financial bond had been a fundamental part of conditions imposed, and the uncertainty could not be allowed to continue.
Another St Andrews member, Robin Waterston, said there should be no further continuations, and a fresh application should be invited instead of the committee hanging on to something “long past its sell by date.”
Committee chairman Andrew Arbuckle said any conditions attached to the existing consent would be transferred to whoever carried out development, and the council was protected.
Mr Arbuckle’s motion for approval was defeated by 5-4.
This has the effect of ending the application in the planning process, as there is no avenue for appeal.