St Andrews University seeks partnership with Guardbridge locals

St Andrews University has made immediate moves to assure residents of Guardbridge that it will work with them to decide its plans for the former Curtis Fine Papers mill in the town, which it has just bought for an undisclosed price.

University quaestor and factor Derek Watson met members of Guardbridge Community Council and revealed that although legal matters were completed at the end of last week, the university will not take possession of the site for another six months.

In the meantime, however, it will move ahead with development proposals so planning applications are ready for submission when the time comes.

Mr Watson said community representatives will be involved perhaps even being invited on to a project board to be kept abreast of proposals as they evolve.

“This will not be a developer-led approach. If we are not good neighbours it will come back and bite us for several generations to come,” he said.

Mr Watson said the university still has to understand the full nature of the sprawling site and what can and cannot be done there, but he said development would be carried out properly and in a sustainable way.

The plans could include spin-out companies from research projects, academic use, possible housing, and renewable energy work which will help make the university “carbon neutral.” He added that because the land has a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) on its doorstep and the location offers “huge opportunities”, there could be a base for students studying environmental impacts.

Also discussed in what he described as a “palette of options” had been the possibility of accommodation for students or post-graduates, and he said the university did not want to see a site that “dies at 5pm.”

The chairman of Fife Council’s north east Fife area committee, Andrew Arbuckle, said, “Obviously this is all at a very early stage, but it will bring back into use property that would have become an eyesore if left unattended.

“Hopefully jobs will be created, there will be environmental improvements, and the important activities of the Eden Estuary Nature Reserve, which has a rangers’ base next to the mill, will be protected.

“This could bring tremendous benefits to the Guardbridge area, and it is an ambitious move for the university, which could have scope to do things it would not be able to do in St Andrews itself.”

At the meeting community chairwoman Elspeth Paterson said the purchase by the university had “put minds at rest”, because there had been fears that the site would lie untouched for years if it had been purchased by a property developer.