Fife Provost Frances Melville has cut the first sod at a ground-breaking ceremony for the new storage facility at St Andrews Links.

The new storage facility is on the site of a former contractors' yard to the south-east of the Balgove Course close to the A91. It is a major part of the Trust's sustainability programme using cutting edge technology in its heating and cooling systems and a range of organic materials in its construction.

Provost Melville was joined by St Andrews Links Trust Chairman Peter Forster and Chief Executive Euan Loudon, Derek Reid, Project Director for architects Archial, and Bob Gray, Regional Operations Director of construction firm Robertson at the ceremony.

The new building is due to open on the brownfield site at the end of the year and will provide important warehouse and office space. It has been carefully designed to have minimal visual impact and to blend in with the surroundings. Among the building's many features will be its sedum roof using organic materials from indigenous herbs and bushes. Natural materials such as timber, glulam and locally-sourced natural stone will be used wherever possible. The facility will be fully thermally efficient, with an air source heat pump system to heat it in winter and cool it in summer, and it will also use rainwater harvesting techniques.

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Provost Melville, who is also a Trustee at the Links, said: "The new facility will be a wonderful example of modern, sustainable building techniques. There was a wide consultation about the new building and I know that a great deal of work has been done to make it sympathetic to the surrounding landscape and to meet the current standards of efficient energy use."

Mr Forster added: "The Trust decided to utilise this former contractors' yard to create a new storage facility much closer to the Links than the current warehouse but the need to make it sustainable and energy efficient was at the forefront of our minds. We recently achieved Golf Environment Organisation status and the new building is an important part of our strategy to manage the Links in as sustainable a fashion as possible."

A short presentation about the new facility is running in the St Andrews Links and Eden clubhouses.

(GK)