Council officials are confident that a £16.3million affordable housing development in Kirkcudbright won’t overwhelm the town’s infrastructure.
Loreburn Housing Association is working on plans for 62 houses on land at The Merse.
And that has prompted capacity concerns over Kirkcudbright’s schools and health centre.
At Tuesday’s economy and resources committee meeting, local councillor Dougie Campbell said the development was “really, really welcome” and was “very much needed” but recognised the potential issues.
He asked: “What would the impact be of a fairly large development for Kirkcudbright on local schools, doctors surgeries, local amenities etc?
“I really want the community to get behind this. How does that process actually work? When do we look at these knock-on factors that are interlinked with any proposed housing development?”
Strategic housing investment and regeneration team leader Jamie Little suggested the homes would have “a positive impact on the town as a whole and also predominantly on the people who will be able to live in them”.
He revealed reviews had been carried out on the impact of housing developments on local amenities, the most recent being in Gretna where 90 homes were built.
Mr Little said: “A review of the people who were allocated those properties showed they were predominantly either coming from within school catchment area and the local GP surgery or those moving in were going to have a minimal or low impact on the school.”
He added there had been a “handful” of new pupils at the primary school in Gretna.
Councillors agreed to the project’s inclusion in the local authority’s strategic housing investment plan, used to guide funding decisions for developments.
Afterwards, Councillor Campbell, who supported the plan, said: “I’m sure this will be encouraging news for people in the area who have been on a waiting list for a long time and desperate for a house.
“I’m aware that there may be some concern about the impact that a development of this scale could have on local amenities and I received assurances that school rolls and GP surgery capacity would be reviewed as plans progress.
“It was interesting to learn that in a similar scale development in Gretna, a large proportion of new householders were already registered with local GPs and had children already attending local schools. It’s something we’ll keep an eye on as plans progress.
“If we want our rural communities to be sustainable and thrive, we need more housing.”
