North East Fife Planning Committee has approved a planning application, 24/00383/FULL, to position a mobile sauna on the East Bents, St Andrews, adjacent to the harbour and has leasd the site for a period of 5 years.
However, since the East Bents is ‘Common Good’ land, i.e., it belongs to the community although administered by the Council, Fife Council is in breach of its obligation to hold a public consultation on the proposal. Normally, such a consultation would preceed the consideration of a planning application but in this case will follow it.
David Middleton, Chair of the Confederation of St Andrews Residents’ Associations (CSARA), who drew the attention of the Council to the legal requirement to hold a consultation, commented ‘The East Bents is common good property as the land was owned by the Burgh Council prior to local government reform, and as such have to be managed for the benefit of townspeople.‘
‘So, the public need to be consulted on any proposal to dispose of or change the use of the East Bents. Although the sauna is a quite modest proposal, the danger is that a precedent will be created which could see the East Bents increasingly commercialised – the Council’s quango, the Sport and Leisure Trust, has already proposed to permit overnight campervan parking at the East Sands.’
Click here to go to the consultation which ends on the 12th September.
Main picture: moble sauna at Kingsbarns similar to the one proposed for the East Bents at the East Sands, St Andrews
