THREE prominent groups in St Andrews have joined forces to condemn a plan which outlines how the area will be developed over the next 10 years.
And the chairs of St Andrews Community Council, the town's Preservation Trust and Green Belt Forum are warning that, without "huge changes," the plan could destroy the St Andrews' landscape setting and historic character.
In a joint statement, th
ey claim many of the views into St Andrews from various directions would disappear "forever" if the proposed developments were ever allowed to be implemented.
"Fife Council planners have completely ignored both expert landscape advice and local opinion and produced a draft Local Plan that enlarges the burgh by up to 40 per cent," said the campaigners.
"It builds over the crucial Strathkinness triangle between high and low roads as far as Rufflets Hotel, builds over the rising ground to the north of the high road and blocks the view into town as you arrive from most directions.
"They place a major industrial complex on the southern slopes of town, east of the new hospital, obstructing the view along the hillside. They then block off the eastern slope alongside the Grange Road, converting open country into a ribbon development of a type conscientious planners abandoned years ago.
"The western approach would be heavily built over, the eastern and southern approach fatally damaged."
The local organisations are calling for a Green Belt which would define St Andrews' natural setting and preserve the views into and out of the town, and its "unique historic outline" before any move by planners and individual developers "to cement over our landscape setting".
And they say the place for expansion is within the low-lying land between the Craigtoun road and Strathkinness Low Road.
"Close analysis by the Green Belt Forum proved reasonable expansion could be entirely contained in this corridor, on restricted areas of the North Haugh and on brown-field sites within town," they say. "The sensitive western approach need not be affected."
They also claim there is a "clear consensus" in St Andrews for more than the mandatory 30 per cent of affordable housing to tackle real need in the town.
