Fife Council’s ambition to construct a new, single-site Madras College at Pipeland in St Andrews has taken a significant step forward with the lodging of an application for planning permission in principle.
The application by Fife Council education and learning service is to erect a secondary school with associated facilities including access, car parking/bus stance, playing fields, regrading of land and alterations to a right of way.
The application site, which comprises prime agricultural land on the southern hillside, was recently defined as green belt land and, theoretically, should be protected from development.
However, the position of the applicant is that Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) is a material consideration and it is national policy that development in the green belt “may still be considered appropriate either as a national priority or to meet an established need if no other suitable site is available.”
Scottish ministers will be notified of Fife councillors’ eventual decision and allowed the opportunity to “call-in” the planning application for ministers’ consideration.
The single-site school, which will replace crumbling, split-site facilities at Kilrymont and South Street, would have a capacity to accommodate up to approximately 1,450 pupils.
Despite a strong campaign against Pipeland, led by former Madras rector Lindsay Matheson, in favour of a site on the western approaches to the town, Fife Council concluded that the site at Pipeland was the only suitable site.