Neighbours object to plans for 150 homes

Neighbours of a former abattoir site in Bathgate have raised concerns that proposals to develop more than 150 houses on the site will destroy their privacy.

Plans to build 154 houses and 12 flats on a brownfield site in Whitburn Road on the edge of the town are currently under scrutiny.

Planning officers have recommended detailed plans to go ahead, with conditions.

The site is on the north side of Whitburn Road and is part brownfield, part greenfield. Screen planting in the form of conifers are situated on the site frontage with Whitburn Road.

An area of woodland is located at the west of the site, with a smaller tree belt located at the east.

The Standhill Industrial Estate is to the south, with housing at Birniehill Crescent to the east.

There are five objections, including one from the town’s community council.

The area is planned for up to 180 homes in the current Local Development Plan and has been derelict for almost 20 years.

Most objectors live in Birniehill Crescent and say the plans there were initially shown have changed radically and the new proposal will see a tree belt which screens the area from their back gardens will disappear and the flats proposed along the edge of the site will look down into their gardens.

While most have no objection to the area being developed for housing the development of the flats up to their boundary fencing has angered them.

In papers to go before committee, planners acknowledged the changes and said:“The layout has been substantially revised since the application was submitted and from the previously refused detailed application.

“The layout takes account of its context and built form by achieving a frontage to Whitburn Road that carries on from houses at the end of Birniehill Terrace.

“This necessitates the removal of predominantly Scots pine trees along the site frontage that acted as screening for the abattoir.”