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Sir, - It was interesting to learn from Councillor Bryan Poole that the commitment to build the replacement Madras College in St Andrews is unchanged.

Readers will be starting to weigh up the leading candidates for a suitable location, many of which have been in consideration since 2009.

The present Fife Council administration set three criteria for site selection: for the site to be on the west side of St Andrews, for it to be sufficiently near to university departments to enjoy the benefits of co-location, and for it to be in council ownership.

These seem to have considerable merit.

The location of the new school on the west side of the town would make it as accessible as possible for the great majority of pupils who travel by bus from that side of the catchment.

The same advantage would apply to community users.

Secondly, the exciting potential of co-location with the university offers mutual benefits.

Thirdly, if the chosen site is in council ownership, it avoids the initial purchase cost and any delay in submitting a planning application.

No doubt these criteria will come back into play once a full site assessment is carried out.

With the recent quashing in the Court of Session of the Pipeland application it would seem important for this re-assessment to start as soon as possible, since all local people, whether parents, pupils, staff or citizens, share an urgency to resolve this.

Pipeland satisfies none of the three criteria and is not even within the town boundary.

Carroll Finnie. 17 St Bunyans Place, Leuchars.