A decision has at last been made to press ahead with a new Madras College in St Andrews.
Councillors yesterday backed a £40 million new-build, single Madras campus on greenbelt land north of Pipeland Farm after a long, drawn-out debate over where the school should go.
A pre-application notice has already been lodged and a planning application is expected to be submitted later this summer.
However, it is inevitable the decision to build on greenbelt will cause controversy. And Peter Grant warned the planning process could be “long and difficult”.
The project was given almost unanimous backing by Fife Council’s executive committee.
An attempt was made by Conservative councillors Dorothea Morrison and Dave Dempsey to delay it even further, so risks such as cost escalation and planning obstacles could be assessed but they failed to win the support of their colleagues.
Mr Grant said: “We can never guarantee when we are building anything anywhere that there won’t be something that comes up that makes things more difficult.
“If we get to the stage where Pipeland is not deliverable, then I genuinely don’t know what to do next.”
Parents, pupils and staff who were consulted were 86% in favour of the Pipeland proposal. However, less than half of the other interested parties consulted backed the location.
Moving approval of the Pipeland site, council leader Alex Rowley said: “I do accept there’s a challenge ahead but I do hope the people who are less supportive of this site will read this consultation because the message from parents is there is overwhelming support for what we are saying.
“There is an absolute need for a new school to be built. The current arrangement with the split site has been something which has been identified for a number of years as unsuitable and HMI (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education) inspectors have picked it up.
“Madras is up there with the highest performing schools in Fife. I think it would be fair to say that does not mean it is performing to the level it could perform at. To what extent that’s down to the split site and down to the condition of the building is another question.”
The school is currently split between campuses at South Street and Kilrymont. It is hoped the decision brings an end to years of wrangles over potential sites for a new school.
Under the previous council administration, it was hoped a school could be built on land owned by the University of St Andrews, with facilities shared by the two institutions.
But following a disagreement over land values, the plan was scrapped.
The council then hoped to redevelop the Kilrymont site, however, they were forced to go back to the drawing board after concerns were raised about traffic, access and provision of sports facilities.
Following a review of the available sites, Pipeland emerged as the preferred option and a consultation was launched.
Ms Morrison warned that if the Pipeland option fell through, it might not be possible to build a school in St Andrews at all.
“We’re really in a difficult position in St Andrews. It has to be made clear to parents at the outset that delivering a school in St Andrews is quite difficult.
“Do they want a school which is not perfect, or a school that has everything but is not in St Andrews?
“I’m seriously worried that if this does not get through the planning stage, there is a strong possibility that parents will be left with their children being educated in a school which is basically falling apart and there is no plan B.”
Tim Brett added: “At the end of the day, my group felt the best way of getting this school delivered as quickly as possible was to go with the site before us today.”