Developers get green light for Caerlee homes

It’s almost a year since Edinburgh-based Whiteburn Projects submitted an application to Scottish Borders Council to provide 44 houses and flats at Caerlee Mill in Chapel Street, Innerleithen.

In the subsequent months issues were raised over actions needed to prevent flooding on the proposed housing site, address ground contamination issues and further street planning issues.

However, conditions have now been put in place to allow the development to proceed and planning approval has been granted by the council’s planning officer Scott Shearer.

Caerlee Mill was built by Alexander Brodie in 1788 and was the first water-powered textile mill to be built in the Borders and the first woollen mill of the industrial revolution in Scotland.

The mill site has always occupied a central location, within the settlement and much of the expansion of Innerleithen over the last two hundred years has kept the mill at its centre.

The mill finally closed in March 2013, after JJ and HB Cashmere Mills Limtied was placed into administration. The factory sheds were demolished in 2016.

A spokesman for Whiteburn Projects said: “With our Caerlee Mill project we hope to show that new build housing can be designed and built with consideration for the heritage of the site at the heart of the proposals.

“We believe that Caerlee Mill offers an opportunity to live in an incredible location in the heart of Innerleithen.”