A £40 million dream to give Fife one of Europe’s finest schools lies in tatters today.
“Since then we have invested an enormous amount of time, energy and resources in working with the council to provide the families of this community with an exemplary secondary school that would be the envy of others throughout the country.”
University officials clearly feel that, while they had made several compromises, the local authority failed to respond in kind.
“Acutely conscious of our place in this community, the university has been committed to this plan from the beginning and on several occasions has agreed to diminutions of the optimum plan in an effort to forge an agreement,” the statement said.
“Nevertheless, on April 19, 2011, the university’s planning and resources committee officially signed off on what we understood to be an agreed plan and sent heads of terms to the council. We did not receive a reply.”
Dr Richardson said “well meaning” people from both the council and university had been unable to bring the project to fruition.
“Unfortunately the difficult economic times in which we find ourselves, and which are being felt so keenly across the public sector, have militated against the kind of creative thinking required for an innovative project like this to work,” she added.
University chiefs have pledged to continue to work with Fife Council in a bid to foster closer academic links in the future.
It now appears certain that the local authority will be left with little realistic option but to construct a new single site Madras at Kilrymont an option which has always been regarded as second best.
Fife council leader Peter Grant branded the situation “very disappointing.”
He suggested that a row over respective land and property values had proved impossible to overcome. The university was to receive the current Madras College building on South Street in return for the land for the new school.
“The council has committed significant resources in its attempt to reach a mutually acceptable deal to purchase or transfer land into council ownership to allow the new school to go ahead,” he said. “We must now move on. Our immediate priority will be to secure a decision on an alternative single site school in St Andrews.”
Mr Grant said the council would take a decision on a new site on September 22.
The ambitious vision to create a state-of-the-art secondary school in St Andrews, sharing facilities with the town’s university, has fatally foundered after officials at the seat of learning lost patience with the local authority.
The revelation comes after years of meticulous planning and just two months after The Courier exclusively revealed the plans were “unravelling”.
University chiefs insist they had no option but to pull out of the deal, saying there was “no end in sight” to protracted negotiations with Fife Council.
Talks over the best possible option to replace Madras College began more than a decade ago. The split-site secondary school is widely regarded as being well past its sell-by date.
News that the authority’s favoured option is effectively dead in the water is sure to be met with dismay by local parents and politicians of all shades. It also promises to drive a deep wedge between the university and local council.
Confirmation of Monday’s dramatic developments were contained in a letter sent to university staff by principal Louise Richardson, a copy of which was seen by The Courier.
“I write to inform you that, with great reluctance, the university is to withdraw from a longstanding joint project with Fife Council to build a replacement for Madras secondary school at Langlands, west of the North Haugh,” she writes.
“Despite a huge amount of work by colleagues here and at Fife Council, it has proved impossible to realise our ambitious vision for a new Madras close to the heart of the university.”
Dr Richardson said it was a “deeply disappointing” day but insisted negotiations had stalled for too long.See Wednesday’s Courier for full analysis of developments and the possible way forward for secondary education in the areaA joint statement released on Monday evening by Dr Richardson and senior governor Ewan Brown provided further clarity. They claimed it was “no time for recriminations” but nevertheless unleashed a thinly-veiled attack on council chiefs, effectively accusing them of failing to drive the scheme forward.
“We have taken the initiative to step aside from the physical plans for the school, as disappointing as that is, in the belief that the pupils and parents of this community deserve a new Madras as soon as practically possible and will want to see work begin without any further delay,” the pair said.
“We had aspired to create a great regional secondary school that was closely linked to the academic activities of the university; that had integrated facilities and shared services; that would cultivate the ambitions of its pupils, and provide them with access to one of the best universities in the UK.”
However, after years of false dawns, the university has finally decided to call time on the plans.
“In 2006, we first approached Fife Council with the idea of building a new school with close physical, academic and support links to the university,” Dr Richardson and Mr Brown said. “In 2009, the council agreed to open negotiations with us.”
Continued…