Villagers in Kirknewton will have to wait another month for a decision on whether a field off a B-road is turned into a car park to mainly serve residents of East Calder two miles away
Councillors on the Development Management Committee delayed taking a decision on whether the 50 space car park should go ahead until they can get answers on a footpath to the railway station further up the hill.
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But in Kirknewton there is no doubt that, whatever is done to mitigate the potential clash of pedestrians and traffic, a car park will blight the village and cannot be built in a way that makes it safe.
This is the latest plan by Stirling Developments for a park and ride facility to serve the massive Calderwood housing development in East Calder. Four others have either been rejected by councillors or not made it to application.
This application was met with more than 90 objections, including one from the village community council and neighbours of the greenfield site. There were around 60 letters in support of the scheme, mostly from people living in Calderwood.
While the latest is much smaller than the 200 plus space proposals of the past it faces the same problems of geography and history.
Kirknewton is the closest railway station to Calderwood. Yet it has a dangerous level crossing, no footbridge connecting the platforms and minimal parking. The level crossing sits atop a hill around a sharp left hand bend on a B-road which has a 1-10 slope as it heads north, downhill, to the busy A71 and East Calder.
In the meeting neighbours queued up to object, citing the dangers of the narrow winding road and footpath, and dangerous road junction.
Peter Wilson highlighted that the station car park was barely used because of better parking facilities at Livingston South, the next station westwards on the line. He also pointed to the poor timetable compared with rail services on the the northern line through West Lothian into Edinburgh.
Andrew Finlayson said that 75% of the expected traffic would have to cross the A71 coming from the north at a junction which had seen seven accidents- three of them serious- between 2015 and 2020.
He argued that the footpath connecting the station to the village is already busy with pedestrians including schoolchildren, and very narrow. The road is busy with cars, buses and HGVs’.
He told the committee the prominent site of the car park would loom over homes in the village: “There is a clear loss of amenity. The number of objections show how much the community clearly values this setting.”
He also pointed out that the consent for developers to provide a park and ride is now a decade old.
“Do the original conditions now need a rethink, with a greater emphasis on joined-up safe active travel between our communities of Kirknewton, East Calder and Calderwood rather than just pushing more short one mile private car journeys to the station?,” he asked.
Another neighbour, Pat Henderson, highlighted the dangers of the road junction. She told the meeting: “A car ploughed into my house, knocking down a lamppost and two conifer trees before embedding itself in my home.”
Linda Cullen pointed to difficulties villagers had faced in registering objections to the proposals. She also highlighted newsletters published by the Calderwood developers which solicited support for the plans and, she alleged,: “suggested that the development of facilities in Calderwood was incumbent on the construction of the park and ride.”
Ray Kirk for Stirling Developments said the new plans were designed to reduced and limit car journeys . The firm had recognised concerns that had been raised by local people. The application was designed “ to deliver a smaller, more sensitive development to mitigate loss of amenity to neighbours.”
Provost Tom Kerr raised a motion seeking clarity on whether the footpath linking the station to the car park could be made wider and safer, with barriers. He proposed further discussions with the developers.
This was backed by Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick who said it was important to get the decision right.
Provost Kerr issued a word of warning that a park and ride could never be big enough whether it was for 50 cars or 500. It echoed comments from Councillor Fitzpatrick that only 900 homes had so far been completed in Calderwood. Eventually there would be 2,300, yet the application was only for a 50 space car park.
Committee voted to delay for a month.
