Councillor Douglas Chapman, the chair of Fife Council's education and children's services committee, said the case to give priority to making Madras College in St Andrews a single site school "has been made and accepted by almost everyone".

"With the UK in serious economic trouble, I'd like to know where the Tories would find money for a new school," he said this week.

Plans for a Taybridgehead secondary school, a proposal dating back decades, were cast aside in April by the education and children's services committee in response to projected school rolls in the catchment area.

But Tories in north east Fife have continued to push for a new school, criticising the Liberal Democrats for dropping a scheme they once supported.

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Elizabeth Smith called in the Scottish Parliament for Scottish Futures Trust funding for the project.

St Andrews-based MSP Ted Brocklebank said the case for a new secondary school for Taybridgehead was "undeniable".

"Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians in Fife have dragged their feet for two decades on the need for a new secondary school for Taybridgehead," he said.

Miles Briggs, the Tories' prospective Westminster candidate in North East Fife, said: "I am certain not only that a new school is possible in the future, but that it would make a lasting difference locally".

Taybridgehead councillor Ron Caird, an education and children's services committee member who argued unsuccessfully for a new school, said 750 pupils came from the Taybridgehead area and needed a secondary school closer to their communities.

"This would also go some way to reducing our carbon footprint," he said.
"There is clearly a need for a new secondary school for Taybridgehead.

"Bell Baxter is currently sitting at 101 per cent capacity with Madras rapidly approaching capacity."

Councillor Chapman said no new evidence supported a Taybridgehead school and queried which projects — for example the £30 million earmarked for Madras College — the Tories would forego to bring it about.

He suggested any proposals could be brought forward in the next Fife Council budget discussions.