LOCAL PLACE PLAN FINALISED

A summary of what we've found

Earlier in the year, the Royal Burgh of St Andrews Community Council decided to take the
opportunity to develop a Local Place Plan (an LPP) for the town. A local place plan is a relatively new
idea in the Scottish planning system. Communities can create these to shape their area’s future for
the next ten years and beyond. It gives them the chance to have a say and create a shared vision
about future development. Basically, we get to have a say about what gets built, and where.

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The Community Council is developing this plan with the community to inform the St Andrews part of
the next iteration of Fife Council’s 10-year Local Development Plan, and it needs to be sent to Fife
Council before the year is out. Community Councillors are all volunteers with a very small budget,
but we couldn’t let this opportunity to channel the voice of our community pass us by.

Our starting point was a consultation with people in the town (residents, visitors, workers etc). We surveyed people, both online and in person to establish what the broad issues of concern were in the town. We stood in the
supermarket, had stalls at community events and spread the word in the media. We asked people
to rate what they thought of certain aspects of the town from 1 star (room for improvement) to 7
stars (good). We grouped these into thematic areas, from housing, to active travel, public transport,
green spaces, buildings and amenities. We also asked people to tell us what three things they
wanted to change about St Andrews over the next 10 years. We received over 500 responses.

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Overall there was a sense of the balance between residents, university, tourists and golf being ‘out
of kilter’. And of course, there were some conflicting views.

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By far the issue that people felt most strongly about was housing. In general, not enough, too
expensive and too many being rented out as short-term holiday accommodation. The next biggest
thing was transport – that there was too much traffic. A large proportion wanted safer cycle routes,
less traffic, better parking enforcement, more pedestrian areas, wider pavements. There was also a
general sense that St Andrews was not being maintained very well – dirty streets, seagull mess,
cluttered and uneven pavements, commercial bins being left out, overflowing drains.

There was also a sense that there was not enough for local people to do – too many souvenir and
coffee shops, and not enough local shops for local people to meet or buy every day items. There was
a sense that the town’s infrastructure wasn’t going to cope very well with planned expansion, and
that more attention was needed to cope with increased numbers of people needing healthcare,
more vehicles on our roads, more demand for electricity or water, more visitors.

We would like to thank those who have sent in their views, responded and provided us with very
useful proposals for change. We received a number of interesting proposals to consider as we
develop our LPP. These include refurbished childrens playparks near Bogward and West Sands,
renovation of public toilets at the Harbour and East Sands, more provision for young people, more
shops in residential areas, town centre pedestrian zones, better cycle provision, greater community
use of university buildings (eg the Byre), community allotments, a park and ride, a coastal cycle path.
The list goes on.

Our engagement continues with in-person events and some focus groups with under-represented
groups. We are still keen to hear your views if you have an interest in the future of St Andrews.

We have in-person consultation events at the Cosmos Centre (Wednesday 26 July 6.30 - 8.00pm) and
the Town Hall (Tuesday 8 August 6.30 - 8pm). We are seeking out opportunities to go to under-
represented groups such as schools and students in the late summer.

Please do visit our webpage to
find out the latest information at www.standrewscommunitycouncil.org.uk/localplaceplan, or if you
want to be in touch, please email us at rbstacc@gmail.com