Rural campaigner risks losing £60,000 to stop St Andrews expansion

A CAMPAIGNER fighting plans to massively expand St Andrews has told how she is risking £60,000 of her own cash to launch a legal fight against the Scottish Government.

Penny Uprichard has launched a costly court action against the government-backed economic blueprint for the Fife region, which is due to begin this week.

The Fife Structure Plan includes proposals to increase the size of St Andrews, the home of golf and one of Scotland's top visitor attractions, by almost a quarter.

The town would get 1,000 extra homes under the plans, as well as new schools, university buildings, shops and a bypass.

If she loses the court case she will have to pay the legal costs of the case, including those of the government, herself. But the campaigner has already raised 37,500 in pledges from townsfolk in St Andrews to back her fight, as well as support from local organisations such as the Greenbelt Trust and the Society for the Protection of Rural Scotland.

Ms Uprichard said the decision to go to court had been a very difficult one, but she hoped the action might avert new developments which she claims the medieval town cannot support. She admitted the financial burden the legal fight has placed on her is "a worry".

Ms Uprichard, an executive member of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, added: "This is not about me – there are a wide range of people in the town and across Scotland who worry about what these developments could do to St Andrews.

"We often hear how important tourism is to the economy of Scotland, and St Andrews is described as the 'jewel in the crown' due to its position as the home of golf, the medieval town centre, the university. But what is being proposed would increase the number of houses in the town by around 25 per cent. That is too much for this town to cope with."

Ms Uprichard claims that Fife Council's structure plan, approved by Scottish Government ministers in May last year, breaches the Town and Country Planning Acts by failing to take account of St Andrews' unique "landscape setting".

Ms Uprichard said the grounds for her legal challenge were that the landscape of St Andrews cannot absorb more than 1,000 houses and that, ten years ago, the St Andrews Strategic Study had stated that the town was at its landscape capacity.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Ministers approved the Fife Structure Plan following full consideration of all relevant issues. It would be inappropriate to comment further pending the outcome of these proceedings."