At least it is out in the open. Berwickshire's front page carries the headline 'Land needed for affordable housing' The story is about an offer from the East Lothian MSP Mr J John Home Robertson and his wife Catherine making a formal submission to the Scottish Borders Council offering land in Paxton for 'Affordable Housing'. With houses in Paxton now going for £200,000 young people are having to find houses elsewhere. They identify the appropriate site in the west of the village between Schoolers Row and the village hallwhich lies in one of their fields: Knowe's Close. This is of course one of the field(s) previously offered by Mr HR some time ago for possible development under the new Local Plan and which, as the result of considerable local opposition, was not shown as a development site in the plan as present drafted. AS the story points out the plan is still going through a consultation process and the HRs, plus a local architect and the Berwickshire Housing Association are 'all arguing the case for affordable rented housing to be built' The story does not mention that the BHA has in fact already investigated the feasibility of building on this field and identified a problem with drainage. Scottish Water has stated that the Paxton system is at full capacity and could not support further housing withou a major upgrade-for which they don't appear to have the money. BHA concedes that inadequate drainage infrastructure is a problem in the Borders and it can be confirmed as much by the residents of Kane's Close who have twice had flooding following heavy rain and with the system just not coping. What it will be like after the 14 new houses go up in the Orchard time will tell.
So here we go again. Old scars scratched and wounds likely to be reopened. The debate about how much development is appropriate or feasible for Paxton will now reopen-unless of course the planners stick to their guns.
It will also be interesting to see if the HRs will be formally notifying the local Community Council of their proposal. Huttonian understands that this is not the case at the moment.
