The Berwickshire is not easily retrievable on line, has a pathetic website-and what there is there mostly dwells on the decline and free fall of Berwick Rangers. So I am indebted to a Merse rantee for the copy of an article on affordable housing drawing on the proceedings of a recent Berwickshire Area Committee. One speaker expressed the worry that once an area is zoned for development, although it may apparently be intended for cheap housing there is actually nothing to prevent the landlord from selling it to the highest bidder-a developer who is more than likely to build luxury properties out of the reach of local people. A planning officer also indicated the problems caused by the limitations of the sewerage infrastructure in many areas-Paxton being a well-known case in point. She also stated that as far as Berwickshire is concerned there is an ‘over provision’ of housing in the draft local plan.
One local architect seemed to suggest that buildings should be planned regardless of sewerage limitations in order to twist Scottish Water’s arm to put the sewerage right in areas of new development and where there is no capacity at present (Paxton being etc) Sadly any amount of arm twisting at a very senior level has done nothing to fix problems in Paxton’s existing sewerage system. The imagination boggles as to what will happen when the 18 additional houses in the Orchard –down to the last ‘Hutton’-are completed and we have a spell of wettish weather-a possibility even in the post Fish era. SW assures us that the system will cope-but as it hasn’t, at least twice, with the current number of dwellings it must be operating on the In sha’llah principle. All will be well, God Willing. But if He/She isn’t. What next? And anyhow with extremes of weather more likely under global warming She may have bigger fish to fry apart from Paxton. The architect in question’s name might then be very appropriate to the watery circumstances*
* The name is given in full on p2 of last Thursday’s Berwickshire if you really think this appalling pun is worth following up; Blog-ed
