Plans for flats at former St Andrews Police Station rejected

The housing shortage remains.


Plans to build 17 new flats in the former St Andrews Police Station on North Street have been rejected by councillors on the Fife Planning Committee.

The former St Andrews Police station was sold to a private developer for a sum thought to exceed £1 million but councillors have decided that the site is too small for the creation of 17 flats in the premises.

A shortage of affordable housing is a key issue in St Andrews, therefore development sites like the disused police station are potential gold mines for private developers. However there is a fine line between supplying enough housing and not overcrowding the small town of St Andrews.

Fife Councillors are concerned about overdevelopment and crammed housing in the town. Councillor Dorothea Morrison is among those wary about overdevelopment on the town’s three main streets.

“It all seems very crammed”, she said. “It’s overdevelopment but with no benefit to St Andrews”.

It is thought that objections such as lack of privacy, limited garden space and lack of car parking also contributed to the proposals being refused by 10 votes to 3.

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