Developers Rapleys have now lost their appeal to site up to 350 houses in the area of Ravelrig Road, according to a decision letter dated 9th May by the Reporter, Mike Shiel. This is good news for the local Green Belt. Click on the blue link above for more details.
Rapleys / CALA Homes have predictably gone to appeal over the City of Edinburgh Planning Depts refusal of this application to build up to 350 houses on Green Belt land. Residents can still make representations to the Reporter who will decide the appeal – the deadline is by the end of Thurs 14th October. Send your email to Marie.Buchanan@gov.scot and mark it for the attention of the Reporter, Michael Shiel.
Residents have until Tues 13th July to comment on CALA’s latest plans for up to 900 houses on Green Belt Land. The PAN proposals are heavy on phrases around sustainability and community benefit – but local people will need to remind themselves that CALA is a profit making volume housebuilder, not a benevolent arm of local government.
To comment further and read about CALA’s proposals – go to https://cala-currievale.co.uk/
Or simply email them directly on hello@cala-currievale.co.uk
Realistically a volume house builder proposing to build on Green Belt land will do just that and no more – you get more houses, more cars and more pollution, and less green space, less agricultural land, and a continued erosion of community identity and sense of place. Sustainability and infrastructure benefits (public transport, schools, surgeries, railway stations, etc) should be funded by local or central government – this incidentally should include publically funded affordable housing on brownfield sites.
Smarting from its setback over Ravelrig 350 house proposal, CALA housing have now given notice to Balerno Community Council that it intends to submit a PAN (Proposal of Application Notice) on the Currievale area – further down the slope from the Newmills development. The PAN – in essence a perfunctory consultation exercise – will be in online format, on Tuesday 22nd June, 3-7pm.
The letter is heavy on phrases to do with sustainability and public transport facilities, but locals will remember that in practice CALA is a very profitable private business, that does not operate in the public interest. Read the letter here: Currievale PAN letter 2021.06
CEC Planning Committee have recently (June 8th) refused the Rapleys proposal for 350 houses near Ravelrig (20/04611 PPP), on the grounds that it contravenes Green Belt policy, that there is already a sufficient housing supply, and also on sustainability grounds. Read the short refusal letter here: CEC refusal letter 2021.06
This is encouraging news for our community and, in particular, sustainability issues seem to be finally inching their way up the agenda. CEC’s comments mention the transport and air pollution issues in some detail, and CEC has set itself a net zero emissions target for 2030. That date implies that action must be taken now – no more delays!
The City of Edinburgh Planning Committee will meet this Friday (24.2.21) to discuss the Ravelrig 350 houses proposal. This is a chance for our community to make clear its views to the councillor members of the Committee.
In particular we have discovered a letter from the Roads Authority that recommends refusal on the grounds of poor transport links – we need to amplify their points with local viewpoints.
An online petition against the building of 350 houses on Green Belt land at Ravelrig has now been launched using the 38 Degrees site. If this development concerns you, click on the link below and share it also:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ravelrig-balerno-save-our-green-belt
The petition will be used to highlight the strength of local feeling to both councillors, MSPs and the Scottish Reporter.
Developers Rapleys have now renewed their planning application to build up to 350 houses in the Ravelrig area.
Residents have until Sun 6th of December to submit comments on this Green Belt proposal on the north side of Balerno, adjacent to Ravelrig Heights and the Newmills development.
Read on to see why this represents inappropriate and unsustainable development for our community and city, and what you can do to help prevent this happening… Continue reading
The DPEA Reporter has now rejected the developers appeal to build 6 glamping pods near to the steadings on Glenbrook Road. The proposal had already been rejected by CEC Planning Committee, and therefore the developer had gone to appeal. This means that the proposals can go no further – for the time being at least.
In his comments, the Reporter quite rightly referred to many of the points made by local residents. Local people have again proved that engaging with Reporters both in written form and personally ( – during his site visit) can be effective in restraining inappropriate, Green Belt, development.
In a late Christmas present for local people, the Reporter has refused the application by Clarendon to build 53 houses on Green Belt land on the Glenbrook Road just outside of Balerno. His refusal seems to be based mainly on Green Belt and landscape considerations. Click here for full details: Glenbrook refusal 2018.12 . So far at least, the western (Glenbrook), southern (Cockburn Crescent) and eastern (Harlaw Gait) boundaries are proving to be defensible. Residents will be aware that the planning system is heavily weighted in favour of developers however. Community Right of Appeal (CRA) for applications that fall outside of the LDP would forestall this.
Residents may recall that this application was refused by CEC Planning in January of this year. Since then, the developer appealed the decision to CEC Planning Dept. This appeal has once again been refused by the CEC Planning Local Review Body (LRB). The refusal letter from LRB is attached here.
Many residents responded to the review notice with detailed and well argued letters of objection, and these seem to have been duly noted by CEC Planning.
Developers Clarendon have recently submitted a minor proposal to build a preliminary 5 houses, on land adjacent to the proposed 60 house development that is already earmarked for Glenbrook Road (see previous post). It is not hard to see that this small scale proposal could pave the way for the main Glenbrook development to go ahead more smoothly. Add this to the fact that the local landowner owns the Goodtrees land to the west of Cockburn Crescent, and that Clarendon were the agents behind the twice refused Cockburn Cres proposal for 150 houses to the south of Cockburn Crescent.
In the light of this, it may be wise for residents to comment on this seemingly minor proposal.
Balerno Green Belt group has produced a poster which you can display in your window to show your support.
Please download and print it out if you support the Green Belt around Balerno.
Window poster 2015.07(PDF, 630 KB)
Balerno Green Belt 