It seems to me that at present we do not have any serious local problems and that things over-all are going well. Remember the newsletter headline in January 1999, 'Threat to the Centre of our Village'? Now we are about to have a pretty amenity garden there leading to an attractive footbridge crossing into Lasswade Park, hopefully before the end of this year. Then in July 1998 there was the headline 'Polton Farm Housing Development', concerning a plan to build at least 200 houses at Polton Farm in the North Esk valley. That threat also has gone as has a lesser one to build 35 houses on that site. As a result of the Public Local Enquiry held last April, the field to the east of the Kevock stables happily cannot now be legally described as a scrapyard, so that is another piece of our environment protected. We are told that soon we will have a roundabout at Wadingburn, something many of us have wanted for some time. I like to think that the hard work done by the Committee has played an important part in achieving these satisfactory results. We have also received excellent help and support from our Councillor, Derek Milligan. Thank you, Derek.

Certainly we must not become complacent about our situation. There are always threats to the Green Belt and new plans coming up with scant regard to the effect they may have on our environment. We have, asI'm sure you all know, excellent plans for a North Esk Way from Penicuik to the sea and Midlothian Council seem to like the idea. None the less, it is becoming very difficult to make any further progress at present owing to a lack of any funding for a feasibility study. On the question of transport, we now have a double decker bus every 20 minutes into Edinburgh, which is excellent in the daytime. Unfortunately we still do not have either an evening bus service or a service on Sundays, though senior officials of S.M.T. and First Bus seemed to be very sympathetic at a meeting we and the Community Council had with them. They say that they will try to do something about this when money is available.....famous last words, I'm afraid! None the less, we will continue to press for a better evening and Sunday bus service for those who live in the area.

There is little that we are not happy with in what will probably be the final version of the Local Plan. You will find an article with much more information about this later on in this Newsletter. However, if you have any matter that you would like to raise, do be sure to contact either me or one of the other members of the Committee We are your Society and we all want to know what you think.

Robin Harper, who is one of our Lothian MSPs and Scotland's only Green MSP will talk to Civic Society members

LASSWADE PAVILION

7:45 for 8:00pm

Polton Village - Bilston Viaduct - Hewan Bank - Maiden Castle

Meet 12 noon at Polton Village by Bridge
Dogs and Children Welcome!

The Annual General Meeting of the Lasswade District Civic Society was held on 2nd May in the Lasswade Park Pavilion; about 30 members were present. The Chairman,. Margaret Workman, first gave a summary of all that had happened during the past year and this was followed by interesting discussions regarding several of the main points. Nearly all of these matters are mentioned in this newsletter anyway so there does not seem to be any need to list them again here. For instance, two of these items are the new footbridge and the North Esk Way.

The new Committee was then elected. As everyone knows, Peter Scola, who dealt with our planning matters, died on April 16th. He has been very much missed by us all; there will never be another Peter. Joan Acton, who lives on Polton Bank, has agreed to take over planning issues. Our secretary, Debbie Kong, also had to resign due to extra work commitments. Debbie was secretary for over five years; and we are all very grateful to her for all the hard work she did for the Society. Our new secretary is Tim Tuke who lives down at Polton Village. Thanks to Joan and Tim for taking over these new responsibilities.

Mae Dickson also had to leave the committee as she is now doing a lot of work with her husband. She was a keen committee member and it is a pity she has to leave us. We have a new member, Tom Delaney from Wadingburn. All the rest of the committee are carrying on as before, our thanks to them all.

Following the floods on 26th April about 30 members and local people (adults and children) spent two hours cleaning up the river and banks between Polton Bridge and Kevock.

The main problem was the mass of shredded plastic that had become lodged in the trees and bushes, but in addition an enormous amount of other rubbish was removed including 2 motorbikes, 1 pushbike and a quarter car!

Great news when the Council recently voted to confirm Springfield Mill's designation as a wildlife site. SMAG had convinced them within the required 6-month period that they had made significant further progress and that the project was truly viable.

The Council also voted to grant the project Landfill Tax money to demolish the remaining buildings and crush and spread the resultant rubble. The timing of this is still uncertain.

SMAG is now continuing with its mammoth fund-raising effort.

Work continues steadily on the preparations to install a footbridge across the river North Esk to Lasswade Park from the High Street in the village.

Midlothian Council produced earlier in the year a very interesting document called 'the Finalised Midlothian Local Plan'. This was available for inspection and discussion by the general public and anyone with any objections was invited to send in an official objection form. Apparently 843 objections were sent in altogether from around 350 objectors (many sent more than one objection) and the Council is giving an initial response to each one. Many of these concern the same subject so in this case a number of the responses will be grouped together. Objectors will be told of the replies to their objections and asked if as a result they are prepared to withdraw. Early next year there will be a Public Enquiry concerning this amended final plan, and objectors who are not happy with the action to be taken can appear and speak at the Enquiry.

The issues which attracted the most objections were proposed housing plans for Penicuik (226 objections), the plans for the new Community Hospital at Eskbank, and the work to be carried out on the A701, the main road out to Penicuik from Edinburgh, making it a dual carriageway. The Civic Society was one of many, the Community Council included, who were not happy with the site proposed for the new hospital at Larkfield North as there is inadequate public transport to the site and it is in one of the most outstanding parts of the Green Belt near the River North Esk. We suggested that Midlothian Council used the site shown in the Draft Plan, at Hardengreen. However, they are now considering using the field west of the A7, opposite Mayshade Garden Centre, as there might be serious technical difficulties building the hospital at Hardengreen West.

Although the society is not directly concerned with the problems concerning the A701, we like the idea of re-opening the old Millerhill-Bilston Glen railway line passing through Loanhead with park and drive facilities at Straiton. This seems preferable to spending around £20 million on building a dual carriageway that many local people do not even want. The Council say in their report that they will not do anything further about this matter as it has already been approved by the Scottish Executive though I understand they are still free to change their mind if they so wish.

The Society also supported the conversion of the old Springfield Mill and area surrounding it into a Wild Life Site, and the Springfield Mill Action Group (SMAG) have done a lot of work obtaining information on how this can be done and what it might cost. The Council is now supporting the project. Alison Hulme, Peter Cain and their enthusiastic team have done a great deal of work to achieve the success they have had so far.

We await the final publication of the approved Plan some time next year.

Since the last newsletter our website has grown quite a lot although we could do with more contributions from members.

Summer really has come at last and long may it continue, with a good shower of rain every night (watering really is rather a nuisance last thing in the evening!). Be sure also to take time to enjoy the garden as well as working in it.

If you wish to raise any particular points which concern you, please get in touch with one of the committee (contact details on the back page). We are here to try to do what you, our members, want.

My very good wishes to everyone for an enjoyable summer.

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