St Andrews Harbour Requires More Funding For Repairs

St Andrews’s iconic harbour, home to historic student traditions, requires more funding for repairs. The harbour, which is Category A listed due to its architectural and historical elements,suffered major damage in Storm Babet last October, rendering it unusable for the past year to students and locals alike.

While Fife Council has already contributed to the harbour’s restoration, it is looking at major budget cuts and is expected to face a £16 million budget gap for next year. According to Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services for Fife Council Eileen Rowand, “There is a great deal of uncertainty for local government funding given the wider economic situation, the continuing effect of inflation, and the unknown scale of future UK and Scottish government's budget decisions.”   

Although £250,000 has already been spent to fix the harbour gates, future repairs to the pier are estimated to cost £750,000 and will be partly funded by a £360,000 grant from the Scottish government. Work on the pier will be carried out by Lochgelly-based Realm Construction, part of the Purvis Group. The repairs are expected to take six months, and, according to the St Andrews Harbour Trust, the pier will hopefully be again opened for public access by late spring.  

Despite the £360,000 grant and generous public donations of over £16,000, only a third of the total funding required to fix the entire harbour has been secured. Douglas Mundie, vice-chair of St Andrews Harbour Trust, told BBC Radio Scotland’s Lunchtime Live: "The bulk of the costs — £2 million of the £3 million — is damage to the land end of the pier where a slipway and the end of the pier were removed.” 

Mundie further stated that the trust is looking to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Fife Council, and Historic Environment Scotland to secure the remaining £2 million funding to complete “phase three” of restoration. The Trust also has a fundraiser online for anyone to donate towards the harbour restoration. 

Image from WikiCommons