SMITH AND CAMPBELL LODGE STRUCTURE PLAN OBJECTIONS

12.00.00am GMT Mon 2nd Feb 2009

North East Fife's MP and MSP Sir Menzies Campbell and Iain Smith have written to John Swinney MSP to lodge their objections to a number of the proposals in the modified Fife Structure Plan which is currently under consultation.

In their letter, Sir Menzies and Mr Smith said:

"We support the view of Fife Council that the housing requirement in the Structure Plan should be 5% and not the 8% being proposed by the Scottish Government.

"We endorse the objections raised by our colleagues in St Andrews Councillors Melville, Sangster and Waterston with regard to the Modified Structure Plan, which is currently with Scottish Ministers.

"We would urge the Scottish Government to take careful consideration of the representations from other organisations such as the St Andrews Green Belt Forum."

They continued:

"In our view it was a fundamental failure by the Scottish Government not to have an examination in public and we are disappointed that you did not agree to the request for this to happen. This has resulted in a vast imposition on communities by central government without regard for individual circumstances.

"We are alarmed at the impact of the additional houses for North East Fife proposed by Scottish Ministers and are not convinced that proper consideration has been given to the effects on the landscape as profligate housing will materially damage the built environment of places such as St Andrews.

"With specific regard to St Andrews, we feel it is vitally important that the language that outlines the nature of the Green Belt includes the term "encircle the town", as per the original proposal."

ENDS