Row over Musselburgh 'park' upkeep
Plans for a major housing development in Musselburgh almost stalled — in a row over who should cut the grass.
Fears were voiced that the creation of a large park at the centre of the development could result in conflict between new homeowners, who would pay for its upkeep, and existing residents in the area who would also be allowed to use it.
Outline proposals by Taylor Wimpey for the construction of up to 470 new homes at Pinkie Mains were eventually approved by 10 votes to four at a meeting of East Lothian Council's planning committee.
Tackled
A bid by opposition Labour councillors to continue the application to allow further discussions between the council and the developer on the maintenance of the proposed park was defeated by nine votes to five.
But members of the SNP/Lib Dem administration agreed that the maintenance of open spaces within private housing developments was a "thorny problem" which had to be tackled by the council.
The committee was told that the masterplan for the 23-hectare site included a large centrally located park, which could contain two plays areas and a kick-about pitch.
Development Control Manager Brian Stalker said the applicants did not wish to pay the council to adopt the land and its maintenance, as they felt the cost was "excessive."
Full report in Musselburgh News, March 12, 2010
So you will have non-owners coming into a privately-owned park with all the conflicts that would have.”
Insisting the application could not be determined until this issue had been resolved, Mr Innes continued: “The council is going to be dragged into this because 25 per cent of the homes would be affordable housing and therefore the council would have a 25 per cent stake in this.
“At the end of the day, are our tenants going to be signed up to this factoring agreement? Are we going to have a two-tier system — because none of our other tenants are paying an additional maintenance costs?”
Council Leader David Berry acknowledged that factoring arrangements in other parts of the county appeared to be “uniformly disappointing” in their service to residents.
“We have a fairly thorny problem here and, policy-wise, we are going to have to resolve it,” he commented.
A representative from Taylor Wimpey assured the committee that the factoring arrangement was working well for larger areas of open space in other parts of Scotland.
The committee agreed that the applicant could not be compelled at this late stage to make a contribution towards the park.
Councillor Paul McLennan, cabinet member for Community Well-being, said he would continue discussions with the developer to see if there were any other options that could be looked at.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Musselburgh
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 6 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 19 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North east
