Galashiels housing development first approved 41 years ago could be on way at last

It was back on February 20, 1979, that council planners gave the green light for that estate on land off the town’s Hillside Drive.

At the time, Blondie’s Heart of Glass was number one in the UK pop charts and the top-grossing film was Kramer vs Kramer, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

Those houses have yet to be built, but consent for them was renewed in 1996, 2008 and 2016. That permission remains valid, and now Edinburgh-based landowner and developer Buckholm has put in a bid to actually build them.

The firm could build the properties to the same specifications and designs approved 41 years ago without further approval, but instead it has put in a new bid proposing to upgrade their designs to make them fit for purpose in 2020.

Edinburgh architect Alan Farningham, acting as agent for the company, said: “There’s actually extant permission that dates back to 1979 for 11 houses, and what we are looking to do is amend the layout and house types that are attached to that permission.

“I don’t know how the houses from 1979 were designed. All I can say is that the new house types are more modern and fit for purpose in terms of design.

“As you can imagine, what was modern 40 years ago is very different from now.

“We have still got the extant permission and if we wanted to we could build that permission out with the house types that were approved at that time, but we are applying to amend that with this application.

“What we are coming forward with is different in terms of the layout and the house types which were originally approved. The permission is there if we want to to use it, but it is no longer fit for modern purposes.

“It’s part of a much bigger site identified in the local development plan for housing, so there has been an expectation that something would come forward in the past, but it has never materialised. Now the current developer wants to move forward.”