Boatyard site: new plans submitted

Sam Berkeley • Published 12 Apr 2012 09:23 1 Comment

REVISED plans for the demolition of Cockenzie Boatyard and the building of flats in its place have been submitted to East Lothian Council.

But the boatyard user who launched a campaign to save the yard when the plans were first mooted is hoping to gain funding and support for a community buyout.

Plans for the demolition of the yard and the building of 28 flats and four houses on the land were submitted to the council by contractors Morris and Spottiswood last November and drew considerable ire from some residents.

Users of the yard were outraged at the proposal to demolish it entirely, while the type of buildings proposed were condemned by some as "cheap" and "off-the-shelf".

The firm formally withdrew the old applications last Wednesday and in their place submitted two new applications, with the number of residential units reduced to 26 - all of them flats - while other alterations have also been made.

A design statement for the new housing application states: "Throughout the planning process for the previous detailed planning application for 32 residential units East Lothian Council received statutory and non-statutory consultees responses and neighbour notification comments and responses relating to the previous planning submission.

"Meetings have been held with the planning department to discuss both the positive and negative feedback received during the planning process of the previous submission.

"The proposals contained within the new planning submission have been developed working with East Lothian Council to take recognition of and address the key points raised by the local community, the statutory consultees, the non-statutory consultees and the planning department."

Eight adjustments to the previous plans are detailed in the new application, including: the reduction in the number of dwellings; pedestrian access to West Harbour Road to the east of the site; replacing the proposed four terraced houses with a "rural-style flatted block"; and providing on-site amenity space for the use of both residents of the new flats and the wider community.

Other amendments to the plans are: to provide a "landscaped buffer" between the western-most flats and the access courtyard; reducing the height of the main block of flats to a maximum of two-and-a-half stories; removing parking spaces accessed from West Harbour Road; and amending the proposals to "reflect the traditional style of housing which incorporates strong details picked form the surrounding area", including banded windows, external stairs and "general use of traditional materials used in the surrounded conservation area".

John Simpson, of East Lorimer Place, launched a campaign to save the yard last October. He has been investigating options to save it.

He has met representatives of the Big Lottery Fund and is looking to kickstart an application for funding to buy the boatyard for the community.

"The plan to demolish the yard] has been a shambles from start to finish," he claimed.

"There's a huge amount of people who are against demolishing it.

"I'm trying to put something together just now for the Big Lottery Fund and I would like to try and buy the yard. There's the new Coastal Communities Fund and I've got an application I'm trying to get through the very first stage.

"If that happens I will try and get a consortium of people together to buy it. But I don't hold out too much hope."

The local authority is expected to decide on the applications in June.

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• 

  Socialist
  Unregistered User
  Apr 12, 11:38
  Report comment

  It is good job Stuart Currie will no longer represent the people of this fine village, if it was not bad enough his position on Cockenzie PS and Cockenzie House and his complete contempt for local people, he was all for this development , I wonder why.
  
  What I cannot understand is that SNP councillors were all for a "Marina" to replace the Power Station yet they want to build houses on this site. Weird!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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