Voted in the Condé Nast Traveller readers' poll as 18th in the 'World's Top 100 Golf Resorts', Fairmont St Andrews has a five-star global reputation for leisure, golf, spa and conference facilities.

On its website, Fairmont stresses its commitment to environmental protection and sustainability. Its 'Green Partnership Pro-gramme,' a company-wide stewardship scheme, strives to minimize its properties' operational impact on the environment.

On Monday, however, it seemed those good intentions had been compromised when a Citizen reader discovered that a Dundee skip lorry with a broken compactor had left most of its load — "broken glass, bottles, newspapers and black sacks" — strewn across the surface of Kinkell Terrace.

''Neighbours examined the waste and it was soon established that it probably came from Fairmont Resort (it included a room label, packaging and champagne bottles)," said the man, who declined to be named.

"Accidents like this can easily happen, but two questions remain: why the driver chose to bring his vehicle up Kinkell Terrace in the first place and, more importantly, if all Fairmont Resort's waste is not separated, can one assume that they employ a private firm to take it away unsorted so as to save money?

''In that case questions should perhaps be asked about their awareness of landfill legislation and 'green' issues, not to mention commitment to the local community."

A spokesman for Ramsay's Transport Ltd., which owns the lorry, declined to comment.
However, Roger McStravick, Fairmont's public relations and marketing manager, told the Citizen: "Ramsay's Transport Ltd. are Fairmont St Andrews' chosen company for refuse collection.

''On the day in question, after noticing the spillage, the driver from our contracted refuse service diverted via Kinkell Terrace to get off Lamond Drive to avoid creating a serious obstacle to busy traffic. Kinkell Terrace was also too narrow to stop, so he stopped on Grange Road.

''Fairmont St Andrews received a call from a resident of Kinkell Terrace at approx 3.15 p.m. and immediately called our contractors to investigate the situation.

"We were informed that the door of the refuse vehicle had blown off and that clean-up efforts were under way.

''When hotel personnel arrived on the scene, the refuse had already been cleared up by the council's environmental services.

"This was an unfortunate and unforeseen incident and we indeed regret any inconvenience caused.

"Fairmont St Andrews takes green issues very seriously and only last week won the Green Business of the Year award at the Kingdom FM Local Heroes Awards. In the hotel we have 19 different recycling points that produce 35 tonnes of recyclables.

''Our cooking oil is transformed into bio-diesel for the golf course machines and we create enough of our own heat and electricity to be self sufficient for 10 months of the year.

''We are a Gold member of the Green Tourism Business scheme, co-founders of Green Business Fife and are one of the small number of corporate partners working with the WWF and the National Geographic Society.

"On occasion, recyclables will unfortunately be put into the rubbish bins, however, our Green Team are working to minimise this."