The site at Allison Gardens will be acquired by Southvale Homes (Lanark) Limited, an adjoining landowner who approached the council to buy the land.

The council has no proposals for future development on the site, which is currently held on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). The District Valuer assessed the value of the site at £150,000, and the proceeds of the sale will go back to the HRA. 

Both the Tenants’ Panel and Scottish Government were consulted and have given their consent to the proposed sale, subject to the deal being concluded.

Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “It’s in the best interests of the council to sell this piece of land to Southvale Homes.

“The land was not required for any future development and the money raised from the sale will provide valuable income to help improve the housing stock in West Lothian.”  

Meanwhile, a decision over proposals for 48 new homes in West Calder has been delayed.

A recent meeting of West Lothian Council’s development management committee unanimously agreed to continue the application and bring it back to February’s development management committee.

The decision was made to allow a report to come back on gas emissions relating to historic shale mining in the area, as well as further investigations into potential subsidence and traffic issues around the site.

Persimmon Homes had applied to build the 48 homes on the 1.55ha greenfield site between Hartwood Road and Burngrange Park, which is allocated for housing in the West Lothian Local Development Plan.

The application resulted in 112 objections, including one from West Calder and Harburn Community Council. The main reasons for objecting included: the impact on traffic and road safety; pressure on local infrastructure such as health, education and cemeteries; concerns of flooding and drainage; and ground stability/subsidence from former mining activities.

Elsewhere, temporary planning consent has been retrospectively given for a new access road at Calderwood in East Calder.

The development management committee gave Stirling Developments permission for the next six months for a temporary road off Clifton Road from Overshiel to Nethershiel. 

A condition was put in place that gates or other measures are put in place to restrict access to limit the number of vehicles using the road to minimise disruption to local residents.

Haulage business Basil Baird & Sons Ltd has operated from Nethershiel Farm for around 60 years, and the implementation of new road infrastructure at Calderwood has affected its historical access from Clifton Road to Nethershiel Farm.

The aim of the temporary road was to avoid commercial vehicles having to use the new access road infrastructure, which will serve an estimated 2,300 news houses and a new primary school as part of the Calderwood development. 

Objections were received that construction traffic for the Calderwood development were also using the temporary road, despite signage and instructions from the developers asking them to use an alternative route off the B7015. This led to an increase in noise and disturbance for Overshiel residents as a result.