A list of potential sites has been published for thousands of new homes in East Lothian over the next decade with the centre of the county likely to see the biggest growth.
The council is currently drawing up its Local Development Plan (LDP) for 2028-2038 which has to include new land for more than 3,000 additional homes which the Scottish Government expects them to build.
And they have published a list of preferred sites which are now being looked at further after receiving more than 130 requests from landowners and developers for consideration.
The LDP also identifies land which should be set aside for woodlands, allotments, leisure and employment but the area with the biggest impact for communities is the sites where future housing will go.
Among the places identified for potential large development to allow the council to meet its targets are Longniddry, Tranent, Haddington, Blindwells and Macmerry, which are all in the central part of the county.
Meanwhile some sites put forward by developers for more than 500 homes including Brand Hill, Broxburn Dunbar, and land at Drem have been rejected as unsuitable.
Graeme Marsden, service manager for East Lothian Council’s planning, said that additional protections for agricultural land in the Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework 4, had made identifying sites which were not going to meet the criteria easier.
He said: “East Lothian has a lot of prime agricultural land which has been given more protection by the NPF4 which has made the process easier in some respects but every site submitted was subject to consideration against all our criteria.”
The local authority is required to identify land to build 6,650 in its next LDP but said around half of that figure could be met through existing sites, most of which already have planning permission, leaving just over 3,000 to be found from new sites.
It said that the number of sites put forward by landowners and developers, if all approved, would have provided another 30,000 homes.
The list of preferred sites which has been published on the council site is only for information at this stage and comes after two years of gathering information not only from the landowners but from local communities who were invited to draw up their own local place plans for consideration.
It will now be used to help planners draw up a draft LDP to go before councillors before going out to public consultation probably next year.
One of the areas where growth could be substantial is Tranent where proposals for between 250 to 500 houses at a new site at Windygoul with another 250 to 500 proposed at Carlaverock Farm are included in the list as well as up to 250 houses at Kingslaw on land previously set aside for employment use which has not been taken up and up to 100 homes at Tranent Glebe.
In Longniddry south more land has been identified to build between 250 to 500 homes next to recent housing estates and at Dovecot, Haddington there is a similar amount proposed.
The full list of sites both preferred and unpreferred can be viewed here
Council leader Norman Hampshire said: “This has been an enormous piece of work and a key element of our draft LDP2 which is expected to go to council for discussion towards the end of this year, before a 12-week period of public consultation and then assessment by the Scottish Government.
“Our assessment of sites is ongoing to determine the impact on infrastructure such as roads, water, sewage, health and education.
“This may lead to further refining of the preferred site list. Our team will also meet representatives from community councils and will speak to those community groups who have produced the Local Place Plans on the sites they proposed.”
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
