First ground broken for the foundations of new Madras College

Ceremony marks end of long-running saga in the town

Construction work on a new Madras College is finally under way, more than a decade after it was pledged by Fife Council.

The first spades were struck into the ground yesterday in an official turfcutting ceremony for the £50 million secondary school in St Andrews.

As pupils helped mark the longawaited milestone at the Langlands site, council co-leader David Ross joked he “still bears the scars” of his involvement in the saga over the last 10 years.

It is anticipated the 1,450-pupil school, which will serve the St Andrews and Tay Bridgehead areas, will be ready for pupils to move in to by the summer of 2021.

The local authority made a commitment to replacing Madras College’s Kilrymont and South Street campuses in 2008, following a damning criticism by inspectors of its split-site arrangement.

However, the road to the new college has been plagued by numerous twists and turns, most notably a Court of Session ruling in 2016 which prevented the school being built on green belt land at the south of the town.

An earlier attempt to broker a deal with St Andrews University for land at Langlands was scuppered when negotiations broke down in 2011.

The tide turned in late 2016, when it was revealed that renewed talks with the university had resurrected the prospect of a school at Langlands.

Mr Ross said: “Langlands has always been the preferred site for the replacement school.

“I hope we can now go forward and provide the modern, fit-for-purpose secondary school that is needed and deserved for the area and that will serve pupils and communities across St Andrews and north-east Fife for many years to come.”

A land exchange deal will involve the university taking ownership of the school’s South Street campus, which it will lease to the council for a nominal sum until the new building is ready.

The council has also agreed to contribute £2.5m for the construction of an access road from the A91, which will eventually extend to the St Andrews West expansion.

I hope we can now go forward and provide the modern, fit-for-purpose secondary school that is needed and deserved for the area. DAVID ROSS

More than a decade after it was first mooted, the turf has finally been cut to start the building work on a new Madras College in St Andrews. The tortuous path to reach this stage has left a generation of children without a fit-for-purpose school.

Planning decisions should be challenged by those upon whom they will impact but it is pupils forced to use the old school throughout unseemly wrangling who have suffered.

Work must be completed as soon as possible to ensure future classes are not impacted.

Picture: Mhairi Edwards. From left: Ava Webster, 11, from Canongate Primary School; Gemma Farquharson, 10, from Lawhead Primary; Gabbi Patino Mains, 11, from Tayport Primary; and Brooke Martin, 10, from Canongate Primary.