A new Madras College will almost certainly be built at Pipeland Farm after a legal challenge to the proposal failed.
A judicial review has backed Fife Council’s plan to build the £42.7 million secondary in the north of the St Andrews.
Following a two-day hearing at the Court of Session in January, Lord Doherty today published his findings and rejected the bid by St Andrews Environmental Protection Association Ltd (STEPAL).
Following the long fight, the leader of Fife Council, David Ross, welcomed the outcome of the review, stating: “We are very pleased with the decision taken by the court and hope that this will now enable us to move on and deliver a new state of the art school for the children of St Andrews and the surrounding areas.
“The pupils, staff and the wider community of Madras College have been very patient throughout this process but they deserve to have a building which matches the excellence of the school.
“I’d like to thank them for the support and determination they have shown and assure them that we will be doing all we can to have their school ready for them as soon as possible.”
During January’s hearing the court heard that the current split-site school was no longer fit for purpose.
However, lawyers acting for STEPAL had argued that the local authority had acted incorrectly by ruling out building the new school at North Haugh, despite council claims that it could not accommodate a single-site school.
In his verdict, Lord Doherty said: “In the present case the material considerations which are said to justify departure from the development plan are the urgent need for a new secondary school in St Andrews; the fact that the proposed site is available; and the fact that no other site is suitable and available.
“It is the last of these considerations which forms the battleground in this judicial review.In my opinion the respondent was fully entitled to regard North Haugh/Station Park as a split site.
“The planning authority was entitled to approach matters in the way that it did.
“If the North Haugh/Station Park site was unsuitable then it mattered not a jot that development on it would be more consonant with the development plan than development at Pipeland.
“Nor am I persuaded that the planning authority left out of account any relevant considerations or had regard to any irrelevant considerations.”For more on this story, see Saturday’s Courier or try our digital edition.