Residents of a new West Lothian development have hit out at a council decision to use their street as a heavy vehicle access road to build more houses.
Homeowners on Cults Road, near Whitburn, claim their children are at risk after their street was chosen as the access road for lorries and work vehicles to build 120 more houses at the new Heartlands development.
Isobel Hamilton, who has lived on the new Cults Road estate for around two-and-a-half years, claims West Lothian Council have gone back on a promise - Condition 10 of the planning application - not to use their street as an access road to further the Heartlands site.
However, the council have said there has been a “misunderstanding” regarding Condition 10, which has not been removed, and all insured vehicles are able to use the road, including work vehicles.
Ms Hamilton said: “They’re building 120 houses into the west of us so we thought they were going to bring all the lorries in via Harthill.
“But now they’ve taken a Condition 10 out of the planning - that they weren’t going to use our road - they’ve taken that clause away without any notification and now there’s going to be 20 lorries a day for three years.
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“It’s a residential road. There’s children out playing, it’s a health risk.
“We’re in about two-and-a-half years and we’ve just got the road finished. The development has just been finished. We just think that the council shouldn’t have taken the clause away.”
West Lothian Council say that Condition 10 was never removed from the application but that there was discussion with the developer, Taylor Wimpy, about accessing the new 120-home development by another route, however this was not possible.
A West Lothian Council spokesperson said: “We would like to clear up any misunderstanding regarding construction traffic using Cults Road for the new development at Heartlands.
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“Condition 10 has not been removed. This condition requires a Traffic Management Plan to be agreed with the council, and the plan which has now been agreed permits access via Cults Road.
“There was a discussion with the developer about accessing the site in an alternative way, but this was not possible as it would have required access over land that was not controlled by the developer.
“Also, any properly licensed and insured vehicle is entitled to access the adopted highway, and planning powers cannot be used to prevent this.
"A road dilapidation survey has been carried out, and the developer will be required to make good any damage to the adopted road as a result of construction traffic.”
