A DECISION on a housing scheme which would help finance a new underpass beneath the East Coast Mainline is set to be made at a meeting next week.

Hundreds of new homes have been built at Hallhill, south of the railway line, in Dunbar in recent years.

However, pedestrian links between the new homes and the older section of Dunbar are limited.

East Lothian Council is keen to see a new pedestrian underpass to improve connections, which could be financed in part through another housing development in the area.

It is expected that the cost of the underpass would be more than £1 million, with part of the cost being covered by the Hallhill North development, which would consist of 197 houses and 48 flats.

A decision is set to be made on the plans, which come from Taylor Wimpey East Scotland and Hallhill Developments Limited, at a meeting of East Lothian Council’s planning committee on Tuesday.

Councillor Norman Hampshire, who chairs the local authority’s planning committee and represents Dunbar on East Lothian Council, noted that currently the only pedestrian access in the area was under the railway line beside Hallhill Sports Centre.

He said: “As part of the application, the developer will be making a contribution to a new underpass at the railway.

“There will not be enough funding coming from the developer to completely do this underpass.

“That has to be done through grant funding from other agencies and the council themselves.

“At the moment, all the houses from the Hallhill area to get to both the lower primary school and secondary school have to come underneath the tunnel, and children going to the Lochend Campus have to come back through that one.

“It is really congested and we definitely need another way through there.”

An underpass was previously in place under the railway line but it was blocked up a number of years ago.

Network Rail was approached about seeing it reopened but was not keen on the idea and East Lothian Council would have been liable for the structure.

Mr Hampshire said: “We have to go with a completely new cut-through for pedestrians and cyclists, which will come through into Ash Grove swing park area but will be a safe route to get to the secondary school.”

Drawings and documents for the planning application were first submitted to East Lothian Council’s planning department at the beginning of February last year.

The scheme, to the west of the primary school’s Lochend Campus, originally featured 218 houses and 24 apartments.