Bid to expand housing estate by 69 houses rejected by councillors

Local residents were able to overturn a decision that would have seen an extra 69 homes added to the existing 58 development on Coopersknowe Crescent, Galashiels (Scottish Borders). Though originally Selkirk-based Eildon Housing Association was given the green light on the project, they had additionally added to the plans (from 58 to 69 homes) which led to 14 objections from local residents.

A meeting with Scottish Borders Council’s planning and building standards committee on February 4th saw representation of local residents by Galashiels and District councillor Euan Jardine who expressed concerns including extra traffic and road safety.

Eildon Housing Association chief executive Nile Istephan told the committee that the proposal was warranted due to the lack of housing in Galashiels: “There is demonstration of very significant housing need in Galashiels. So we are aware this scheme has been a vacant site for a number of years and it has been a plan for housing for a period of time.

“Our proposals, we believe, provide a good bridge between the existing development at Coopersknowe Crescent, and the existing development at Easter Langlee.”

Despite all the recommendation of the council’s planning department and the need for more homes and social housing, councillors voted by 6 votes to 2 to reject the planning application.

Full story can be read on the Border Telegraph website.

EAN Breaking News

Breaking News. Have a new story to share with us? Then please get in contact today!

You May Also Enjoy

Rightmove logo
Breaking News

London’s rental market bucks the national trend

New analysis from the UK’s largest property platform Rightmove reveals that rental demand in the capital is up 7% in September while Great Britain overall is 2% below last year Rental demand in London had been running around 7% below 2025 levels on average throughout 2026 until the end of August before moving into growth…
Read More →
Breaking News

Higher mortgage rates put buyers in the driving seat

Market conditions vary locally: three in four Scottish homes find a buyer within three months, compared with just three in ten in London   Mortgage rates now average 5.2 per cent, the highest level in three years, adding £150 a month (£1,800 a year) to typical repayments and further cooling buyer demand Homes for sale…
Read More →
Breaking News

Prime London buyer demand cools in Q3

he latest Prime London Demand Index by London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, reveals that buyer demand across London’s core prime property market cooled during the third quarter of 2026, falling by -1.3% on a quarterly basis. However, a number of central London markets bucked the wider trend, with demand across the super-prime sector…
Read More →
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 30/9/26

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X. SaaS traditionally sells access, AI sells outcomes Thought Leadership by Author Andrew Stanton CEO Proptech-PR For twenty years, one of the safest assumptions in property technology has been that software companies will become increasingly important. A property business identifies an inefficient process, a proptech company…
Read More →
how to present your property for sale
Estate Agent Talk

We’ve got the visitors. Now we need your listings.

Sponsored content, paid for by Domovita. More than 10,000 people a month come to Domovita, and nearly nine in ten of them arrive on a sold-price page for one particular street, looking up what the houses there went for. You can look up your own patch here. What those people don’t find yet is enough…
Read More →
Breaking News

Housing market hit by £18m increase in fall-through costs in Q2 2026

The latest Fall-Through Index by the House Buyer Bureau reveals that the number of property fall-throughs across the UK increased by 6.6% during the second quarter of 2026, resulting in an additional £18.3m in costs to the housing market compared to the previous quarter.   House Buyer Bureau analysed the latest data from TwentyCi on the…
Read More →