An application has been submitted to SLC for planning permission for 4 new houses on the field adjacent to St Isidore’s church. The field itself is between St Isidore’s building and Lindsaylands Rd. This area, including St Isidore’s church building, is shown in red on the plan below. Full details of the application can be viewed on the SLC planning portal - the application reference is P/21/2176.
Biggar Community Council would like to ascertain the community's view of this proposal and will be launching an online and paper survey shortly. We will then submit a response to this proposal which reflects the views of the community. Individuals are free to submit their own responses direct to SLC using the link above.
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On Monday 10 Jan, Biggar Community Council hosted an online public meeting with Clydesdale Housing Association, Glenesk Homes and SB Architects regarding their proposal for 20 new social housing units on Market Rd. Although the proposal is still at an early stage, it provided useful information about the idea which is summarised below. There are two areas of land which would be used for this:
The Housing Association has had discussions with the current owners about acquiring this land, but have not yet purchased it yet. If the Housing Association decide to go ahead with the proposal, they plan to complete the purchase of the land by April this year, and start construction in 2023. Joe Gorman, CEO of Clydesdale Housing Association explained that his organisation provides afforded rented housing for people on lower income and also provides specially adapted housing for older people and people with disabilities. The Housing Association currently charge £84.13 per week for two bedroom properties. The proposal for Market Rd would consist of 20 two-bedroom own-door "cottage flats". Four of the ground floor flats would be specifically designed to be wheel-chair accessible, and a further six flats would provide "amenity housing" designed for older or less mobile people which would include adaptions such as raised plugs to reduce bending and additional handrails where appropriate. The remaining 10 flats would be available for mainstream tenants. Places in the development would be allocated to people within the Clydesdale Housing Association area based on housing need, but it is possible that a Local Letting Inititive could be applied to some of the properties because of the large number of people (468) on SLC's housing register waiting for 2-bedroom properties in Biggar. This would give priority to existing local residents. The Housing Association feel that the site is particularly suitable for social housing, because it is close to the shops and amenities such as the Gillespie Centre, library, health centre, sports centre and schools and has easy access to bus stops on the HIgh St via Clydesdale Close. They felt that this was important as social housing tenants have below-average access to cars, and is especially true for older people and wheelchair/scooter users. In the Local Development Plan, site is currently zoned for commercial/business use, and SLC's Planning Dept have indicated that they would not normally consider re-zoning it for housing. However, given the high demand for social rented housing in Biggar, and the particular merits of the site described above, the Housing Association hope to persuade the Planners to allow social rented social to be constructed even though this would go against the local plan. Although the designs have not been finalised, Stuart Bishop of SB Architects presented some preliminary impressions of the housing which would be built between Big Bs and the High School access. The buildings would be two storey, and aim to blend in with styles already found in Biggar. The housing would back into Market Rd, with the main access via a courtyard on the woodyard side. The courtyard would include 12 parking spaces, with another 4 parking spaces located on the High School access road. Impressions of the four flats which would be located next to the nursery are not available yet, but would be of a similar style. A full copy of the presentation given at the meeting is available below.
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March 2024
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