Petition to halt housing plans on popular woodland rejected
A bid to stop housing being built on popular woodland has been rejected by East Lothian councillors after developers said it had only received a ‘very low number of objections’.
Plans for nearly 150 affordable homes on the former Herdmanflat Hospital site in Haddington had faced objections from local residents with hundreds signing a petition to save part of the site last year.
A meeting of East Lothian Council’s petitions committee heard the original petition had been withdrawn after project developer Hub South East objected to some of its wording – and a new one had only gathered 43 signatures.
The petitioners argued many local residents did not know about the plans for the site until a planning application was lodged for the affrordable housing last year.
Friends of Herdmanflat Hospital and Haddington Central Tenants and Residents Association said when people did become aware, a petition was circulated which drew 300 signatures, with a further 400 lodged online, however it was withdrawn after the developers objected.
The petition before the committee had far fewer signatures because of the speed in which it had to be pulled together, the committee heard.
Stuart Pe-Win, who represented the petition on behalf of local residents, called on the council and developers to halt their current plans for the redevelopment, restart the consultation phase and “allow the local community to have a more significant influence on decisions regarding the future of the site”.
The committee unanimously agreed to reject the petition.