Fife Council could face a significant compensation claim as a result of a “catastrophic” planning blunder.
It is to order a St Andrews hotel to rip down a 54-foot long beer garden structure inaccurately described as a “pergola” which it permitted three years ago.
Councillors decided to withdraw planning consent despite a warning the owner of the West Port Bar and Kitchen could claim for losses.
David Turner, whose late mother endured noise and light from the covered beer garden next door to her home during her final days, said the case was a “remarkable planning scandal”.
Fife Council has already apologised to Mr Turner, who still owns the B-listed South Street house, after damning criticism by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman of failures in its handling of the application.
As well as allowing it to be called a pergola, which the Oxford dictionary defines as an arched garden framework, planners wrongly reported no objections were made.
To remedy the situation, officers recommended an enforcement notice be served requiring the 12ft-high frame and retractable roof be reduced by 30 inches, as it was built higher and closer to the Turners’ garden than permitted.
However, at a joint meeting the council’s north-east Fife area and north- east Fife planning committees decided against dealing only with the planning breach.
Mr Turner said: “It is a horrendous embarrassment to Fife Council that it still proposed this action, even at this stage.”
He said the structure had caused terrible stress to his mother while she was ill and left her unable to sleep in her own bedroom due to the noise of customers outside.
Alterations to the hotel’s licence has since limited use of the beer garden, but councillors are worried restrictions could be relaxed in the future.
Councillor Dorothea Morrison said a discontinuance notice was the only option. “I don’t think the recommendation resolves the problem.”
Planning senior manager Pam Ewen argued the recommendation was a reasonable compromise, respectful to all parties concerned.
Had the structure been built as consented, she said, it would have been acceptable and not overbearing in the town’s conservation area nor on neighbouring listed buildings.
She said: “It has been built higher and in the wrong place, which was the key focus of my recommendation.”
She also said lessons had been learned and that staff training would ensure issues which arose were not repeated.
No one from Thistle Pub Company II, understood to have bought the hotel from Maclay Group since the application, was available for comment.