Turning fertile farmland into a housing estate would “destroy a precious resource” and ruin the character of a village already facing massive change.
That was the assertion on the one of the hundreds of objectors to plans by Springfield Properties to develop open countryside at Burnhouse Farm on the north side of Dechmont.
Springfield sought planning permission in principle to develop 30 acres of fields, building around 160 new homes on land which rises to the Bathgate Hills from the village off what is currently a narrow B-road leading to Linlithgow.
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A meeting of West Lothian’s Council’s Planning Committee heard that there had been 267 objections to the proposal by villagers, as well as from local councillors, three community councils and two MSP’s
Dechmont, once a quiet village on the A89 has started to see massive redevelopment on its doorstep at the Bangour Hopsital site where almost 1,000 homes will be built. At the eastern end of the village permission has been granted for another 120 homes. These two developments alone will treble the size of the village.
One objector, Isabelle Gall told the meeting that the Springfield proposals would further detach the village from its rural location.
She added that the plan would fly in the face of climate change decisions and lose more productive farmland from providing food at a time when the country was increasingly reliant on imported food and facing growing climate disruption and war.
“This is a south facing slope of fertile farmland. This is not just a plan for a housing estate. It would destroy a precious resource.”
Fellow objector, Gillian Anderson chair of the village community council said: “Dechmont will treble in size because of existing development. With any further development it will lose its character and identity as a village. Traffic is already an issue for us.”
Objectors criticised the argument by developers that there was not enough land set aside for housing in West Lothian.
Speaking for Springfield, Graeme Patrick the firm’s Strategic Planning Director said recent victories in appeals against refusal of planning permission to develop other countryside sites validated the argument and demand for more homes.
West Lothian has argued that it has enough land set aside for ten years worth of development. The Burnside Farm site had actually been removed from identified development status before the current Local Development Plan had been produced in 2018. It is a designated area of countryside.
The land is also classified as being part of a site of special scientific interest, and part of the Bathgate Hills. In all the Springfield proposal contravened 13 policies of the current Local Development Plan. Just one would be enough to justify refusal Mrs Anderson reminded the meeting.
Councillor Stuart Borrowman, who chairs the council’s Development Management Committee commented on remarks from Planning Director Craig McCorriston that the Burnhouse fields were removed from a list of potential house building sites: “It was taken out for good reason and so should stay out for a good reason,” he said.
The committee backed planning officers’ recommendations for refusal.
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