Planning

FINALISED WEST LOTHIAN LOCAL PLAN 2005
Objection from Linlithgow civic Trust

Letter to Head of Development & Regulatory Services, West Lothian Couincil, dated 24 June 2005

Dear Sir,

I refer to your letter of 19 May 2005 outlining the opportunity to formally object to the finalised West Lothian Local Plan 2005. You may be aware that Linlithgow Civic Trust, Linlithgow Community Council and other local organisations are collectively preparing an alternative Community Plan for Linlithgow.  Details of this will be submitted to West Lothian Council, in due course, following a locally-organised consultation exercise.  In the meantime, please record this letter as a formal objection to the Local Plan.

The Community Plan itself will cover a range of issues of direct relevance to the future growth of Linlithgow including:

1. A summary of the existing strengths of Linlithgow as a community

2. An analysis of the town's main physical problems which require to be tackled such as

  • Traffic management, roads and parking
  • Inadequate education facilities, including overcrowding in schools
  • Conservation and enhancement of Linlithgow's heritage and townscape assets, including the need to upgrade the High Street environment
  • The cumulative negative impact of the Council's existing 'policy of restraint' on the growth of Linlithgow, with some 400 houses constructed in recent years and a further 550 in the development pipeline, all with no apparent direct benefit accruing to the community as a whole
  • The continued lack of new social-rented/low-cost affordable private housing; ¢ The unmet potential to attract more tourists to Linlithgow
  • The need for enhanced youth, community and cultural facilities for the town
  • The requirement for expansion of health facilities, sufficient to meet the needs of a 21st century Linlithgow
  • Shopping in Linlithgow, with particular regard to its potential to act as a specialist retail centre, obviating the need for further incursion of chain store multiple outlets within the High Street or on allegedly edge of centre sites.

3. An assessment of threats to the continued well being of the town resulting from past and present decisions of the Council such as:

  • The continued housing development in the town, despite planning 'restraint' policies, as mentioned above
  • The potential impact on town centre shopping facilities of the proposed retail park at Falkirk Road
  • The impending loss of the town's traditional role as the county town and administrative centre of West Lothian.

4. Most importantly, it is intended that the Community Plan will put forward a comprehensive set of realistic proposals to solve the problems listed above, most likely as a legal requirement of developers carrying out carefully managed town expansion. It is envisaged that such proposals may include traffic management schemes and roads proposals aimed at curtailing unnecessary through traffic, additional car parking spaces, new schools, a 'townscape heritage initiative' for the High Street, and plans to remedy the other problems outlined above.

Community endorsement of the contents of the Community Plan will not be feasible within the limited timescale available for comment on the statutory Local Plan. Linlithgow Civic Trust would therefore ask that this letter is treated as a holding objection to the West Lothian Local Plan 2005, on the grounds that:

  1. The West Lothian Local Plan, as it stands, fails to address adequately a range of issues affecting Linlithgow (including, but not restricted to, those listed above);
  2. The existing policy of restraint on the growth of Linlithgow has failed to address the community needs of Linlithgow, but instead will lead to the development of up to 1000 houses with little or no associated community benefit, but with increased pressures being placed on inadequate local facilities/infrastructure, to the detriment of the town as a whole;
  3. The Local Plan has no co-ordinated strategy for filling the vacuum that will result from the Council's policy commitment to remove Linlithgow's traditional administrative functions, in either, physical, social or economic terms; and
  4. (The existing Council policy of restraint in Linlithgow appears to be in danger of becoming one of neglect, given the Local Plan's lack of proposals relating to the town's infrastructure inadequacies, the definition of its future role, and the scope for managed future development, of benefit to the community as a whole.

Depending on the outcome of the community consultation exercise, Linlithgow Civic Trust will wish to re-affirm and confirm the full detail of its objection in due course.

Yours faithfully,

(signed)

Ronald P A Smith BSc MRTPI
Chairman, Linlithgow Civic Trust