St Andrews Bay Development (Kingask)
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Traffic concerns as golfing plans prepare for
go-ahead
The Courier, 3 July 1999
A Fife councillor has raised questions over the St Andrews
traffic impact study which is being relied on by Fife Council officials as one
of the reasons for backing plans for a major golf and leisure development at
Kingask.
East Neuk member Elizabeth Riches, one of a number of
councillors who expressed concern about traffic matters at this weeks
East Area development committee meeting, said that from her observations it was
very worrying that emphasis was being placed on some statements
made.
Mrs Riches said her concern had been prompted by her own
experience of how statistics were obtained at one of the junctions used for
information gathering - the City Road/North Street location.
She said she had watched young people sitting in a car
with their feet on the dashboard and having a good, jokey time as
they went about their work.
While the people involved were no doubt glad of the work
and money, she said, her confidence had not been raised and she felt that what
she had observed did not appear to be professional.
A strong defence of the consultants study was made by
the councils head of planning, David Rae, who said that the work seen by
Mrs Riches was only part of the commission.
He said the firm involved was well respected in its field
and the advice it had given was largely responsible for comments he had made in
his report.
He also made it clear in one of his reports to the
committee that the conclusions of the consultants, while primarily concerned
with traffic impacts in St Andrews, would also help to inform the approach to
dealing with similar development pressures elsewhere in Fife.
It is clear from the consultants advice that
the very real concerns expressed by a large number of individuals and
organisations regarding traffic impact on St Andrews, and in particular the key
junctions in St Andrews, are overstated, he claimed.
Mr Rae also said the consultants had carried out assessment
work in relation to the green travel plans in the proposals for St Andrews.
The consultants, he said, appeared to be
satisfied that the green plan was a legitimate tool to use in managing
and restricting traffic generation and flows.
In the case of Kingask, the plan intends to impose
tight control of traffic movement in and out of the site during the
construction and operation phases.
It is part of a Section 75 legal agreement which has been
drawn up in meticulous detail with the Kingask developers in advance of
next weeks meeting of the central strategic development committee, when a
decision will be made on the planning application.
Mr Rae is to recommend approval of the £50 million
Kingask plans, and refusal of an £18 million development at
Scooniehill.
The third project due to be considered next week was for a
large development by Dundee-based developer Michael Johnston at Feddinch, but
this application has now been withdrawn. more
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