A group which has taken its fight against current plans for a new Madras College to Scotland’s top civil court has insisted it only wants what is best for the town.
The St Andrews Environmental Protection Association Limited (STEPAL) will be at the Court of Session on January 12 to appeal the outcome of a judicial review into the planning process which saw permission granted for the new £40 million St Andrews school.
The legal action has so far prevented Fife Council from starting work at its preferred site at Pipeland.
Despite that, STEPAL has now gained charitable status and its members say their resolve to see a new Madras built elsewhere has never been stronger.
Former Madras rector Lindsay Matheson defended STEPAL’s stance and said it was unfair for opponents to cast them as the “awkward squad”.
“We strongly endorse the need for a new Madras College,” he stressed.
“But we are equally as strongly not wanting to grab an option which will produce something scarcely better than the previous situation.
“It’s a tight and sloping site, it’s difficult for disabled, pedestrian and road access, and it has a major constraint on the hospital there. We think the community is very strongly behind us in saying the Pipeland project is not right for St Andrews or the pupils and community users within the whole catchment area.”
And on their own critics, he added: “Everyone has a right to say what they think, but there seems to be a hysterical reaction to what should be a proper debate about the merits.”
STEPAL favours a university-owned site at the North Haugh, and outgoing principal Professor Louise Richardson recently said that offer is “still on the table”.
“All these other sites are still there and many of them, if you had an even-handed re-appraisal, would turn out to be just as strong if not stronger than Pipeland,” Mr Matheson continued.
“We think the principal tried to make a positive contribution because if the court case goes against the council then it is going to have to look for an alternative.”
Fellow STEPAL director Mary Jack said the fact many pupils will travel in from the west makes a site on that side of town appealing.
“We’re looking for a school that will last for some time and will be available for all pupils, parents and community users in its catchment,” she noted.
STEPAL has incurred huge costs due to its legal fight, although it won a protected expenses order earlier this year to limit those.
Gaining charitable status will help, but Mr Matheson said: “That’s not our principal purpose in going for charitable status it’s to emphasise our status as a charity within this community really focusing on the environmental concerns which we think are being ignored in this project and other projects that we have been and will be involved with in the future.”Parent Voice angered by charity moveSTEPAL’s move to claim charitable status as an environmental campaigning body has provoked outrage among members of Parent Voice.
The Parent Voice group, made up of parents and grandparents who support the development of a new Madras at Pipeland, has spoken of its anger at STEPAL’s actions and once more criticised the bid to block the new school being built in the council’s preferred location.
“STEPAL’s controversial and unpopular court case has already been criticised for inflicting years of delays on a desperately needed school for the children of North East Fife,” a Parent Voice spokesman said.
“It’s also been accused of wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money, with time-consuming court cases, and the costs of delaying a large infrastructure project of this sort.
“Are they now looking to use money claimed from HMRC to help fund even more lawyers to block the new school for our children?”
Parent Voice has already been incensed at the delays in building the new Madras and described STEPAL’s legal challenge earlier this year as “cruel”.
And with the latest court battle looming, it has also questioned STEPAL favouring the university site at the North Haugh.
“Would any serious charity set up for ‘the advancement of environmental protection’ spend tens of thousands of pounds campaigning to bulldoze the home of rare nesting herons, protected bat species and to concrete over one of St Andrews largest flood plains?” the group added.
“This week, for the fifth time this year, the North Haugh ‘pond site’ targeted by STEPAL has been hit by major flooding, with standing water covering almost all the site.
“This is hardly surprising, since the Scottish Environment Protection Authority (Sepa) clearly identify the site as St Andrews’ largest flood plain, classified as ‘high’ risk. It’s also a fact well known by the thousands of birds who have, for decades, made the marshland their home.
“Any visitor to the site in the winter months will enjoy the sight of a rich area of biodiversity, teeming with birdlife and other creatures.
“Quite aside from birdlife, it’s also home to a valuable collection of rare and unusual tree species and large numbers of protected bats.
“It is, in short, one of the most bio-diverse, environmentally valuable sites in the whole of this town to concrete it over would be both ludicrous environmentally, and patently dangerous in terms of flood risk.”