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| Musselburgh Cluster Development Outline |
The title of this post is very simple in itself: East Lothian Council plans to build 10,000 new homes, the bulk of them in the corridor between Musselburgh and Longniddry, to meet the requirements set out by the Scottish Government's Housing Strategy by 2020.
These new homes will largely service a huge demand for housing by Edinburgh's diaspora caused by a lack of suitable building land, rising population and increasing congestion within the city's boundaries.
There is also the attraction of East Lothian itself.
Musselburgh (actually, planners refer to it as the Musselburgh Cluster as it includes Wallyford and Old Craighall) will itself receive a maximum of 4,700 homes, although a number of these will be in Old Craighall and not impacting on Inveresk Road.
The other 5,000 or so houses will be constructed in Prestonpans, Cockenzie, Port Seton and Longniddry.
The idea is that most of these new commuters for Edinburgh will be seduced by the attraction of the Park and Rides which straddle our railway stations at Wallyford and QMU as well as the various other rail facilities along the coast. They will also be irresistibly drawn to the free wi fi and frequency of the number 44 and 26 buses which wend their way into Edinburgh via the High St. The number 30 is not a significant draw for commuters due to its detailed tour of Musselburgh's nether regions before it finally embarks on its journey of discovery through Niddry and Craigmillar.
I have read through as much documentation as I can in the last week and have met with a planner (I would name him if I could remember his name) at the drop-in session for the Local Development Plan held recently at the Brunton Hall.
Items I discussed in this meeting at the Brunton included the potential for the reopening of the Electric Bridge (a non-starterdue to structural problems and rich schools), the reopening of Inveresk Road (a red herring, I think, to distract us from other traffic issues), the purchase of The Caprice car park and bus depot for a new junction (too haphazard given the bus company's 'will we, won't we' move attitude), and finally, the selective closure of roads into and out of Musselburgh at peak commuting times (councillors will lose their jobs).
The net result of all the new developments, including new traffic restrictions on the High Street, will be a huge increase in traffic along Pinkie Road, Inveresk Road and Dalrymple Loan. This is Plan A.
There is no Plan B.
