Proposed new houses

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/

They have finally admitted what we have suspected for some time - taken from this weeks Council planning applications on the website.

01/00031/OUT	16 January 2001
George Wimpey East Scotland Limited, 28 Barnton Grove, Edinburgh, EH4 6BT
Outline planning application for residential development
at Land At Greenlaw Mains , Mauricewood Road, Penicuik, Midlothian
Application Withdrawn

01/00213/OUT	4 April 2001
Cala Management Limited, The Forum, Callander Business Park, Callander Road, Falkirk
Outline permission for residential development with associated retail, community and leisure facilities and road alterations
at Land At Belwood Road And , Mauricewood Road, Penicuik, Midlothian
Application Withdrawn Good news for all residents of this part of Penicuik!!!

I don't mean to sound like Sam the Sceptic, but I can't help thinking this is only a temporary stay of execution.

Although it is good news, I'm afraid you are probably right. As long as they own the land they will simply hold off building until the economy improves

rubbereye wrote:

I don't mean to sound like Sam the Sceptic, but I can't help thinking this is only a temporary stay of execution.

I think you may be right, rubbereye. I saw this as well but note the dates! Unless I'm mistaken these are the "holding" applications they put in for these sites before the sites were written into the Local Plan. If they were genuine applications the developers would have been screaming to the Scottish Ministers for redress against Midlothian Council at least five years ago.

These applications were actually approved years ago despite all the protests from local people that the sites were not suitable. I have been told that there are four mineshafts in the area and the location of only one of them is known plus the very obvious drainage problems and rising cost of concrete (which they would need loads of to build the necessary raft foundations) mean it is just not economic.
It might be possible many years in the future but with the current state of the building companies I cannot see anything happening for a long time.

Very odd thing in this weeks Council list of Approved Building Warrants:

07/00252/BWERD 20 October 2009
George Wimpey East Scotland Ltd, 1 Masterton Park, Carnegie Campus, Dunfermline
Erect 69 houses
at land at Greenlaw Mains (Phase 1), Mauricewood Road, Penicuik

I don't suppose anyone knows what on earth all that is about???

Looks like Wimpey want to build some houses again as this was on the Building Warrants section of the council website:

Taylor Wimpey, 1 Masterton Park, Carnegie Campus, Dunfermline
Erect 64 dwellings and 36 flats
at Land at Greenlaw Mains, Mauricewood Road, Penicuik
Estimated Cost £6594937

Who knows what is going on there?

Perhaps they have to renew their planning application/building warrant every so often to ensure that the permission to build continues. A quick look on the Internet suggests it may only last for 5 years but it could be different for Midlothian.

Work on site must start within five years or planning consent must be renewed or it lapses.
Which is why there so many places where you can find about 5 metres of road with kerbstones in place going off into a field and then stopping! Work has started within the time; it can then sit for years untouched after that.
Don't know about Building Warrants. They're usually applied for when work is about to start in my experience.