East Lothian Courier | News | Backing for new town at Blindwells

Thursday, 20th November, 2008

Published: Thursday, 1st November, 2007 09:30

Backing for new town at Blindwells

A NEW town of at least 5,000 residents on the former open cast mining site at Blindwells, near Tranent, has taken a huge step towards reality.

For the Scottish Executive reporter who held an inquiry into objections against the Local Plan has recommended that 1,600 homes on the 130 hectare site be given the green light.

It’s planned a single campus for pre-school, primary and secondary school pupils be built there – and an additional 3,000 homes could also be accommodated in future.

Iain Lumsden’s much-anticipated and wide-ranging report, which will be presented to councillors, also paves the way for 1,000 new houses at Wallyford, 450 at Musselburgh’s Pinkie, 750 at Letham Mains, Haddington, and 500 each at Dunbar and North Berwick respectively.

His report has been welcomed by county MSP Iain Gray, who declared: “We do need more affordable housing available in East Lothian, and the idea of a settlement at Blindwells does seem to me to be worth pursuing.

“A new community with its own services should be preferable to building pockets of houses onto existing towns and villages, putting a strain on local schools, health facilities and so on.”

However, Mr Lumsden has, for now, put the brakes on proposals for out-of-town retail development at Haddington.

In a move that will frustrate supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Tesco, he has recommended that the council first complete a review of retail opportunities in the town before it’s decided whether to allocate prime sites for retail development on the outskirts of Haddington.

Blindwells was one of six county locations identified in the Edinburgh and Lothians Structure Plan 2015 as suitable for new housing.

Mr Lumsden found that the re-use of the Blindwells site “constitutes one of the least damaging housing opportunities in environmental terms”.

He also backed the principle of Blindwells taking thousands of more homes in future.

His report said: “There are doubts over the ability of existing settlements in East Lothian to contribute significantly to any further expansion beyond 2015.

“Consequently, the expansion of the proposed new settlement at Blindwells to provide for an additional 2,500-3,000 houses is acknowledged as a distinct possibility. In my opinion, Blindwells is one of the locations where additional land may be safeguarded for future development.”

At the Local Plan inquiry hearing last year, the council’s decision to safeguard for housing a much larger area at Blindwells, not just the section closest to the A1’s Bankton Junction, but stretching as far as Longniddry, Gladsmuir and Macmerry, came under fire.

Objecters feared the creation of an Edinburgh suburb and negative impact on the environment.

Mr Lumsden has said that it would be appropriate for the council to “reconsider the extent of the area to be safeguarded. . . with a view to reducing it to a more appropriate level”.

Blindwells objector Angus Tulloch, of Southfield House near Longniddry, told the Courier he backed this decision.

On the retail front, the reporter’s recommendation for further investigation into retail zoning at Haddington will come as a setback to Sainsbury’s, who want to build a food store and petrol station at Gateside West, and to Tesco, who are thought to be looking at relocating from the town centre to Gateside East. In addition, Miller Developments has earmarked Harperdean for a £20 million retail park.

The reporter wrote: “I consider it would be premature to allocate any of the objection sites for out of centre retail development at the present time.”

Haddington Community Council chairman, Jan Wilson, said: “We welcome anything that will help us to protect the interests of the town centre and our local traders.”

Mr Lumsden’s report is expected to be considered by the council on November 27. Planning convenor, Councillor Barry Turner, said: “If agreed, the recommendations will go into the Local Plan. I can’t say when any development might start at Blindwells because there is a lot of water to go under the bridge before we get to that stage, including planning applications.

“But we are under extreme pressure to provide more housing.”

Welcoming the recommendation on retail space, he added: “Haddington is changing and we don’t want to make a rash decision.”

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