New social housing flats will be built in Winchburgh providing much needed affordable homes in an established part of the village.
West Lothian’s Development Management Committee (DMC) backed plans by the Cruden Partnership to build 37 new flats and five houses on a near two-acre site in Glendevon Park.
The site will provide new homes close to Winchburgh Primary.
Councillors heard that the site is considered as brownfield. The area of ground had previously contained two 4- storey blocks of flats of 32 properties, and 16 lockup garages.
Those flats and garages were demolished around 10 years ago. The hard standing on the upper level of the site has been used for informal parking and the land to the south of the site is a maintained grassed area.
Despite this the plans received 15 objections from locals concerned about traffic impact around the school during construction as well as increased noise levels. There were also objections to the loss of informal green space and potential future parking problems.
The homes are being built for LINK and the housing association pointed out that car ownership ratio is lower among its customer base compared to other tenures
A report to councillors said: “The proposals had been considered at a pre-application stage for the construction of 3 blocks of flats at this site with 49 Units. Through discussion this was amended to 2 blocks of flats and 5 terraced houses when the planning application was submitted.
The development has further been amended as a result of a Scottish Power electricity pole and line at the south west corner of the site.
“Due to this infrastructure constraint, the southern 4-storey block has been reduced in scale, retaining more open space on the western side of the block. The 3-storey block has been amended and additional parking provision provided within the site. Overall, there has been a reduction of 2 flats within the proposed development as a result of the Scottish Power infrastructure.”
Cruden is building the homes for LINK registered social landlords and they will be made available to people on the housing waiting list.
The report added: “The Local Development Plan (LDP) provides a capacity of 27 units and whilst the proposed development exceeds that by some 15 properties, the council’s declared housing emergency means that an increased capacity on the site, and 100% affordable housing is welcomed.”
Councils raised questions posed by objectors around parking and traffic at the site during construction. A representative of Cruden said the firm had an established reputation of delivering homes in difficult to access areas and of well managed sites with controlled deliveries and other traffic.
Local Labour councillor Tony Boyle said: “I’m with this development. We need these extra flats. I’m hoping it happens quickly.”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
