Fife Council officials have been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over a planned major golf and leisure development near St Andrews.
Only a few weeks ago the council said that an access built at the Feddinch site was unauthorised, and that a planning application, which included a golf course and luxury accommodation, was effectively dead in the water.
Now, however, the council’s top legal official has said that planning consent for the 18-hole golf course does, in fact, exist and it can be built so long as a financial bond is provided.
He has decided that the access, which other council officials had recommended should be the subject of enforcement action, was legally commenced as part of the lengthy planning process relating to the site, and nothing can be done about it.
Although planning permission for the development was granted several years ago, work was never started, and it was thought that the entire scheme had run out of time.
The sea-change in council opinion has arisen because of a challenge from lawyers acting for Scotia Investments, the firm trying to take forward the multi-million development with the agreement of the liquidators of the former St Andrews International Golf Club.
Scotia had applied for an extension of time for the application, but this was refused by members of Fife Council’s north-east Fife area committee to the dismay of Scotia, which at one point indicated that it would either appeal, or submit a scaled-down application.
Subsequent correspondence went all the way to the council’s head of legal services Ian Matheson, and now planning team leader Alastair Hamilton has written to a local resident to say that a number of issues “overlapping and rather complex” had come together.
He said that having investigated the works undertaken, and the legal position with the site, he could confirm that planning consent for the golf course remains valid, although no further work can be undertaken without the securing of a financial bond relating to the legal agreement attached to the original planning consent.
Scotia has indicated that it will be able to put up such a bond.
Mr Hamilton said that at this point there is no permission for a clubhouse, and due to the length of time that has passed the clubhouse would require a new planning application.
The plans for land to the south-west of the town at Feddinch were first approved in 2005, and involved the creation of luxury accommodation, a private golf course and other leisure facilities.
A major condition of approval was the provision of a £6m bond to Fife Council, 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 £7m 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.
Liquidators were appointed around a year ago when Court of Session ruled that St Andrews International Golf Club should be wound up.