Parkhead Lodge

I have had my suspicions about what was happening with Parkhead Lodge for some time now. It now seems that the council do intend to use it as a house of multiple occupation. http://www.midlothianadvertiser.co.uk/news/Penicuik-homeless.

I am somewhat concerned that the council is unable to say where the residents who will stay in the flats will be coming from. I note that councillor Thacker wishes to reassure everyone that they will not be coming from Lauder Lodge. However, I understand that residents from Roslin Lee hospital used to be transferred to Lauder Lodge. Will they now be sent to Parkhead Lodge instead? Are there any other institutions they might come from?

If this was a private company who wanted to run this project then surely it would be open to public scrutiny. They would have to provide a business plan to the council. The council would scrutinise it taking into account the views of the public and make a decision on whether to grant a license. Why is it that the council are less than willing to share their plans with the public? If they have nothing to hide what harm is there in sharing their plans? It seems to me that once again the council have made a decision and no matter what, they are determined to press ahead, regardless of local opinion.

Will the Penicuik and District Community council be trying to find out any more details? Enquiring minds wish to know.

I for one do not relish the idea of having another 'Lauder Lodge' on my doorstep'.

All very convenient for the cooncil as they get to ask themselves for permission to build and run the place and of course we all know about "consultation" with the public. (It's happening so you have to put up with it!)
I imagine they chose that site because they know that the neighbours there will be able to deal with any trouble in their own special way.

The URL above doesn't seem to work, but I found it at http://www.midlothianadvertiser.co.uk/news/Penicuik-homeless-unit-proposed-for.4359136.jp
Is Parkhead Lodge the building currently being worked on at the barracks?

Thanks Ironlung, the Web link I had must have become truncated. I spent a while composing the message and when I submitted it I received an error message. I then had to rewrite the post from scratch .

That building is the only one that I could think of and the building work that is going on does look quite extensive.

Googles Parkhead Lodge and it is the one next to the barracks. Amazing were the council find money from isnt it

http://www.scottishproperty.gov.uk/Search/Index.cfm?fuseaction=Details&UPRN=L023822&searchid=254012&rfa=fuseaction%3DParticipatingAgencyDetails%26PRN%3D11111

That looks like the place. As I have said I am concerned that the council are simply moving the problem from one place to another. I might be wrong in this assumption. However, I am quite willing to listen to their side of the story. If they have nothing to hide, I am sure that they will wish to allay any fears that the public may have and that any of the residents of this new establishment will be citizens that we can be proud of.

Just in case anyone is not familiar with the problems with Lauder lodge, here is a quote from the Chief Constable’s Electronic Newsletter - November 2006 http://www.lbp.police.uk/ccnewsletter/2006/nov.pdf

Quote :

Protests see hostel close

As a result of objections from the police and Dalkeith residents, Midlothian Council’s General purposes Committee ordered that the multiple occupancy hostel in Newmills road, Dalkeith, known as Lauder Lodge is to close in July 2007. police objections to the renewal of the licence revolved around them being called to the premises to deal with anti-social behaviour and reports of crime on more than 190 occasions during the previous year. According to subsequent media reports, local residents later described the decision of the board as “absolutely fantastic”.

The amount of work cars and vans outside this site is going to cause a accident. If you are at the bus stop you have to stand in the road so the bus driver can see you avoiding all the oncoming traffic.

When I came home this evening there was a police van parked to so i am hoping something has been done about it. If not I will have to make a complaint to someone. Not sure who the police I suppose.

I noticed to people getting of the bus at this stop have to step into the road to look around the vans to see if it is safe to cross. As i say a accident waiting to happen

Has anyone heard who is definitly going to be living in this lodge.

Lots of rumours flying around and worried residents in Glencourse

The only thing that I have had recently was a leaflet which was being distributed round the doors by some concerned residents. It more or less talked about the same concerns that I have. However, I have also been told that there will be 13 units in the accommodation instead of the 48 at Lauder lodge and the facility will be run by the council instead of a housing association. All I know about who is going to be staying there are that they will be "homeless applicants".

It also seems that there has been no application yet for a licence for the use of a property of multiple occupation. So perhaps the residents will have an opportunity to voice their objections at the stage.

Ah well, not everyone in Glencorse was over the moon when they built that sprawling great characterless Wimpey estate in our midst.

I heard that letters have been sent to local residents with many groundless claims about the kind of "undesirables" that would be staying there - the council are not too happy about it.

I can now reveal that the truth is even worse - it is going to be a retirement home for banking officials with the codes RBS and HBOS being seen in highly classified documents. Get the burning torches and pitchforks ready folks!

The news sheet placed through the doors of the residents of GM2 was a disgrace. The person(s) responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves! Scare mongering and knee jerk!
I wonder if it was the same people who peddled the rumours (when the Army houses were being built) that it was going to be a refugee camp? How much trouble has been caused by the families at the Army Houses? None that I am aware of
A statutory requirement is placed on Midlothian Council to provide accommodation for young people of the kind which the refurbished Parkhead Lodge will contain. (The Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, the Homelessness Etc. (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Support and Assistance of Young People Leaving Care (Scotland) Regulations 2003.)
A community is judged by the way it treats it’s less fortunate! What does it say about us if we refuse to try and help these people?
Can any resident in GM1 or 2 (hand on heart) say that their children have never taken drugs, will never take drugs, have never been or will never be cautioned by the police, have never been involved in underage drinking, have never smashed a school window? What makes us think we have the right to demand of MDC that none of the residents of PL have these issues? Anyone want to stick their hand up? Take a walk down to Tesco at night time and see the youngsters hanging about outside the entrance. Causing grief to the staff, and shoppers. These are not residents of Parkhead Lodge but OUR children! Look at home first before we start vilifying the proposed residents of PL

Well said, Chris!

Totally agreed 100% with what Chris said. Its not like the house is being built right in the middle of your housing estate and the residents are going to be living right next door to them. It could be worse, you could live in Imrie Place and face onto a Lidl, I would swap views with you any day. Life's too short, look at the bigger picture people.

I am not going to defend the way Midlothian council has handled this, as it's indefensible.

There are currently around 11,000 children and young people accomodated by local authorities across Scotland, (Midlothian has a higher percentage of accomodated kids than most). The outcomes for children and young people looked after by counils are not good. Only around 6% of children looked after by councils go on to get good educational qulifications, compared with 60% in Germany and Sweden.
Personally, I find the way that we consistently let down some of our most vulnerable children and young people, shameful.

If a young person is looked after by the Council when they reach their school leaving date, then the council has a responsibility to the young person until they are 21. however, if at 21, the young person is in Education or training the responsibility continues until their course completes. In other words the state, you, me and everyone else, has the same duty to these young people, that we have to our own children.

In the past Young people leaving care have been dumped in B&B accomodation, which is expensive for the council and unsafe for the often vulnerable young people. They have also been put straight in to tenencies, where all too often they are unable to cope and cause problems both for themselves and the people round about.

Much focus has been given to the admittedly bad record of the now closed Lauder lodge in dalkeith. What is less widely reported is that lauder house was a 58 bed hostel, which was totally unfit for the purpose for which it was being used. I would argue that Lauder Lodge's closure was not just a victory for the police and the local community, but also marked a good step on the road to providing a quality service for young people leaving care in Midlothian.

This is the body of experience which is driving the creation of units like Parkhead Lodge.

Parkhead Lodge is essentially two units. the first, situated in the main house will accomodate 5 residents. This group will be primarilly young people leaving care, or who have been in care aged 16-21. they will receive a great deal of support from specialist staff.

The second unit currently being built will have 8 self contained flats. There is an expectation that many of the residents in this group, will have moved in from the main house, as they make progress. However, Midlothian Council has also stated that other young may be accomodated here, who have been identified as fitting the criteria, the age range could also differ from those in the main house.

Specialist staff will be on site during the day, and a warden will be on site overnight, the site will be staffed 24/7.

Midlothian has also publicly stated that the young people placed in parkhead will be carefully selected. I am taking this to meen that parkhead has been deemed to be an unsuitable placement for young people who present with more difficult problems.

These young people are not just Jock Tamson's bairns, they are our bairns.

Welcome to the forum melspence and thank you for your contribution to the debate. One of the issues that I was interested in was the amount of supervision that there would be and you said:

Quote :

Specialist staff will be on site during the day, and a warden will be on site overnight, the site will be staffed 24/7.

As far as I am aware and I may be wrong, although there will be a warden during the night, I understand that that is for the flats rather than the house.

I'm pretty sure that the warden will be covering the whole site, it's not exactl;y huge after all.

However, I'll take the issue away and get back to you.

Mel

As a relatively new Community Councillor for Mauricewood & Greenlaw Mains, I can see why a number of 'concerned residents' feel they are being kept in the dark about the exact function of The Lodge. During our recent meeting, we asked local residents to get in touch with the questions they feel have not been answered by MDC. I will note comments from resident's I see who know me but, there are a large number who do not, so, please feel free to contact me via the forum our personnaly to discuss any other issues regarding our ward. If you are one of the 'concerned' who has not had chance to voice their option, please get in touch also.

Well, I have just been reading in the Advertiser about the application that is being made for an HMO licence at Kilbreck House in Loanhead which has 18 residents. I don't know very much about the premises but the councillors that are reviewing the licence appear to be very unhappy with those who are applying for it. There also appear to have been quite a high number of calls made to the police about the premises and residents.

At Monday's Community Council meeting in Penicuik Town Hall, Community PC Derek Frizzel specifically referred to Kilbreck. He reported that this establishment did not cause particular concern to L&BP and that you would drive past and not even know it was there. I would tend to believe what someone in the know says before I believed a report in the paper. If PC Frizzel is correct and Kilbreck does not cause particular problems.........transport yourself 6 years into the future...........imagine Parkhead Lodge............ then look at this from the Evening News from 6 years ago........ Déjà vu

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Anger-over-homes-for-exoffenders.2475946.jp

The opening of PHL may be delayed by the petition which is doing the rounds and from any objections raised by local residents............ but it will go ahead, rest assured.£ 1.2million already spent. We need to look past that and to make sure we give these residents the best welcome and support we can.
You know the sad thing is that there are echoes of the Army houses being built and the resentment that some of the Army families still feel about the way they are being ostracised. What does that say about us as a community?

Just to confirm that these are my own views and not on behalf of PDCC

Perhaps you are right and maybe the council has once again presented everyone with yet another fait accompli. I don't think you can compare the army houses with HMO premises though and I didn't realise that there is any resentment towards those who live in them. If there is I would say that is shameful. However, this is what it said in the advertiser about Kilbreck house

Quote :

Police had requested that the licence be granted for one year to allow the premises to be reviewed. Since it opened in October 2005 officers had received 105 calls relating to the premises and its residents.

Andy from the lips of someone on the front line. Again I would tend to listen to a balanced view as opposed to headlines in the paper. PC Frizzel pointed out that they were called out on average once every 2 weeks. I wonder how many times the L&BP have been called to Tesco's or to the Public Park or to pubs/clubs in Penicuik?


No perhaps about it Andy. It will go ahead and we need to make sure that WE as a community are ready and are prepared to assist in making sure that the residents are felt welcome and give them the best possible chance to move on from any issues they have had in the past. Whether it be through losing parents, drugs etc. Andy from your previous posts you have made it known that you involved as a family in fostering and I am sure you will agree that we should all play a part as a community.

I do think that I can compare the situation with the Army houses!! And you obviously haven't spoken to those that I have. Rumours swept GM1 and 2 when news broke of the building of the army houses which were outrageous. Can you recall them? Refugee camps etc. Are you aware of any trouble being caused by the Army residents? There is still resentment on both sides, the feeling on one side is that the community of Penicuik have still not accepted the residents of the Army houses and are still referred to as "Army children" How sad is that? And it is shameful. If the proposed developments at the back of Mauricewood had proceeded would we have treated those new community members in a different manner? Sure the residents have fears. Wouldn't you if you had received the scare monger news sheet through the door? There will probably be call outs for the Police. But at the same time balance that against the amount of calls the Police will recive in Penicuik in a week to deal with anti social behaviour.

I also agree that MDC have handled the whole process badly and hopefully they will learn.

Anyone from GM2 reading this post........... please take a step back think about it. We all have a part to play. You can use your energies in trying to halt the Lodge.............( which will not happen) or divert that energy into making this work with all the baggage that may go with it.

The figure I quoted from the Advertiser seems to suggest that the police were called out about once a week. How many times are they being called to Parkhead Lodge at the moment? If the facility was being managed well, I would hope that there was no need for the police being called out at all.

As you say Chris I am a foster parent and I do take responsibility for any kids that are in my care. Also, I have not said whether I favour the new premises or not. On the other hand as someone who lives closeby in the area I do have concerns about how it will be run. Any questions that I have asked have always had that in mind.

The two main reasons that I was not happy with the building of the houses at the back of Mauricewood and Glencorse were due to the loss of greenbelt land and the additional congestion with cars that would have been caused. There were other reasons but I will not go into them.