A bid to prevent a new high school being built on the southern edge of St Andrews has raised the price by £3 million, it is alleged.
Opponents to the creation of a new Madras College building at Pipeland have waged a sustained campaign against the project, including a failed judicial review and now an appeal against the judgment.
The additional cost outlined by Fife Council’s education spokesman, Councillor Bryan Poole, was down to inflation and excluded the extra time council officers have spent on the project.
And Mr Poole warned that the latest action by St Andrews Environmental Protection Association Ltd (STEPAL), led by former Madras rector Lindsay Matheson, could see the bill spiral.
Challenging Lord Docherty’s judgment in favour of the Pipeland site has delayed the opening of the £42.7m school until at least 2018, he stated.
Mr Poole said: “Every year’s delay is costing Fife Council around £1.5m due to construction inflationary pressures.
“So on inflationary costs alone STEPAL have cost the taxpayers of Fife an additional £3m to date, which in all probability will increase.
“I have asked our officials to investigate whether we can include these additional costs against any claim we submit in relation to the action taken by STEPAL and I’m hopeful there is a way where STEPAL can be held responsible for the actions they have instigated.
“That a company can be set up to take action which costs the public purse millions of pounds seems to me to be bordering on an abuse of the system,” he added.
STEPAL responded: “We have already stated many times that any additional costs in this project may be attributed to the ill-judged Fife Council decision to go for Pipeland and then by ignoring the decision of the North East Fife planning committee in February 2014 when other better sites were available that would not involve setting aside the local plan and breaching the green belt.”