Feddinch Golf course plans out of council hands

North east Fife councillors voted this week to reject a bid by the developers of the planned luxury Feddinch Club to renew planning permission for a clubhouse and accommodation on the site.
The Feddinch development is targeted at the luxury end of the market.The Feddinch development is targeted at the luxury end of the market.
The Feddinch development is targeted at the luxury end of the market.

But the decision will only support the council’s evidence to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA), because, after Fife Council took too long to reach a decision, Scotia Investments appealed to the DPEA that the failure to make a decision meant the application had not been determined.

Council planner Elspeth Cook told councillors at an area planning committee that the application before them was to renew planning permission for a clubhouse at Feddinch including 41 letting rooms for use by club members. The application was previously approved by the DPEA in 2011 after Scotia Investments appealed, again claiming non-determination by Fife Council.

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She said that the report to councillors would now form the basis of the council’s evidence to the DPEA – and refusal was recommended.

Ms Cook explained that the DPEA decision in 2011 had been conditional that work on the clubhouse should not start until the bulk of work on the golf course had been completed.

“The issue is that the golf course has not been completed and whether there are enough grounds to keep reviewing this.”

In April Ewan McKay, a director of The Feddinch Club, St Andrews Limited (TFC) said that course completion was scheduled for late 2017, adding: “As the aim is to open the facility in the summer of 2018, the plan is to commence the clubhouse build in autumn 2016.”