Here is the text of a reply to a query I sent to the council about access

Quote:

Thank you for your recent email regarding access onto the walkway. It should have been part of the planning conditions that access to the walkway be maintained during the construction. However this seems to have been omitted by the planning section who are at present trying to reach agreement with the developers for the access to be reopened.

_________________
Andy

Fear knocks at the door, knowledge answers and finds nothing.

Glad to hear you got a reply on that, but it shows that the cooncil have obviously made a mess of it. You would think with the number of planning applications they deal with (especially over the past few years), they could at least get all the conditions sorted out.
Maybe a quick email to the Advertiser woudl result in the necessary "prompting" to make them get their finger out!

I was down there yesterday and there is another way to get down to the railway walk. However, previously it was restricted by an awkward to negotiate gate and not very convenient. Someone has now removed part of the gate and it is much easier to go through now.

I hope that the council can still persuade the builders to create a small corridor for pedestrians and cyclists to use to access the railway though. I will remind them in a couple of weeks if nothing has changed.

Well, the good news is that the builders seem to have opened access to the old railway walk. Let's hope it stays that way.

I have heard that houses are no longer going to be built at the back of Glencorse due to problems with drainage. Does anyone know if this is true?

There is no definite word about the houses (as with most things in Midlothian!!!) although Wimpey still have the development listed on their website with an October / November 2008 opening date - this keeps changing as it started off at April 2007!

http://www.georgewimpey.co.uk/newhomes/East+Scotland/GreenlawMill/

I have heard many stories about the site: gas from mineworkings, poor drainage, water table just below the surface, subsidence problems ( a big surprise on the site of an old mine!) and cost of roads, utilities etc too high now that Cala have scrapped their Mauricewood development. I think that the "credit crunch" is probably a major reason as other developments have stopped, even when they were more advanced with roads etc in place which is all quite understandable as there is no point building houses which no one can afford to buy. One day the council or someone might actually tell us what is happening / not happening but I would no hold my breath.

As far as I knew, the houses at the back of Mauricewood were still scheduled to go ahead and the link that you provided does seem to show this. However, there has been no word at all about what is happening at the back of Glencorse. At the very least I presume that it has been put on hold due to the credit crunch.

Hi

Were do you mean when you say the back of Glencorse. I know the ones at Mauricewood are behind Boyd-Or Drive. Are the Glencorse ones going in the fields next to it beside Bellwood Road.

I hope they are not going ahead as that is a great dog walking place and has its own K9 Social structure lol.

As far as I am aware Cala planned to build behind Mauricewood estate (to the south / left of Mauricewood Road while Wimpey's Greenlaw Mill development is to the north running from Mauricewood Road right across to Belwood Road. The plans they produce keep changing and don't usually show much detail.
If any of them are going to happen and when is something that can only be guessed at but I don't see Wimpey spending millions on infrastructure (roads, traffic lights etc have to be completed before any houses can be occupied) if they won't be able to sell the houses. I also would expect people to be unsure about buying property built on old mineworkings which are often waterlogged.

I thought that the sign for Wimpey's Greenlaw Mill development was at the back of Mauricewood estate right next to Mauricewood road which made me think that they would be building there first. Are you saying that Wimpey will be building across the back of both Mauricewood and Glencorse estates from one end to the other? If that is the case I'm not sure where Cala will be building.

Mauricewood is actually the estate on the left hand side as you go up Mauricewood Road while the Wimpey houses on the right (with Mauricewood Primary school just to confuse people) are in Greenlaw Mains. Cala's development was to go behind Mauricewood then up towards Deanburn, possibly continuing right along behind Cornbank, despite this already being one of the highest housing estates in the UK. This all seems to have been scrapped as you can find no information about it anywhere and most of the site is now turning in to a woodland - much nicer to look at than rows of concrete boxes.
The Wimpey site covers the whole area of fields behind Greenlaw Mains and Glencorse estates between Mauricewood and Belwood Roads.
What the apparent postponement / cancellation will mean for the council is an interesting question as I believe that the "developer contribution" from the builders was to cover most of the cost of the new leisure centre.

Ah, it all becomes clear now. I always thought that Mauricewood estate was where Mauricewood school was. I know that technically the estates are Greenlaw mains one and two but I have always thought of them as Mauricewood and Glencorse.

I looked out last night about 11pm and saw that the Wimpey sign was being useful - providing a perch for an owl!

Cala are still (supposedly) planning to build in the "angle" between the Mauricewood houses and Deanburn. Look at a map and you'll see what I mean.
But they shifted heaven and earth to get the Council to agree to include the next field up in the next round of development and won. The "incentive" (am I allowed to say that? ) was a nice new road from Rullion Road to Mauricewood Road to link up with the new roundabout on the A702.
Chances are they will now ... er ... forget to develop the bottom field because it's more difficult and concentrate on the top one.
That is if any get built at all before all the builders go bust!

I take it that the area that Cala homes is going to build on is PK5 shown here http://www.penicuik2015.freeuk.com/