Fears over green belt office plan
A massive business park is set to be built on land next to a university campus, fuelling fears over the future of Edinburgh’s green belt.
Planners have given the go-ahead for space on either side of the proposed Queen Margaret University College campus outside Musselburgh to be developed.
East Lothian Council says up to 40 hectares of land around the site could be used to provide employment.
The proposal to allocate the area for development is set to be rubber-stamped at a meeting of the council next week.
Campaigners today reacted with dismay at the move, saying it would effectively join Edinburgh and Musselburgh into one urban sprawl.
The land was originally earmarked for new housing estates and businesses in 2003, but plans were shelved amid problems with water and drainage. These problems have since been addressed.
Duncan Campbell, of Friends of the Greenbelt, said: "We‘d be very concerned if there are still plans to develop all of the land beside the campus.
"The original proposals had a substantial amount of green-belt land set aside for development and I think there were hopes that the difficulties encountered by the university-campus application might force the council to look for alternative sites.
"It was clearly always the council’s intention to develop this area. This has to be seen as the final step in conjoining Edinburgh and Musselburgh."
Lothians MSP Robin Harper, of the Green Party, said: "East Lothian Council are doing what is all too typical today, in assuming that because one plot of green-belt land has been reluctantly given up for an important project, that land nearby can automatically be developed on."
Scotsman.com, 24th January, 2005
