Shawfair - past, present and future « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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Shawfair - past, present and future

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Started 8 years ago by chdot
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chdot
Admin

First the present -

kaputnik posted this yesterday -

"

It was a nice evening last night and I was given permission so I went out on the bike for a few hours. Ended out at Shawfair by sun-down and was greeted by a fully complete, brightly lit and eerily abandoned new station with a large car park and even larger access road. Infact it seems both the bridge into Shawfair from both Millerhill Road and at Old Craighall Road have been "futureproofed" to be future expanded to dual carriageway. Slightly ironic thought I that the roads into a railway which had lots of its double track removed at the point of design were all generously double track and clearly there's expectation of them being doubled in the not too distant future.

There's a lot of lovely new roads built into the site, with a further access bridge (not connected to anything) over the railway at Shawfair Farm, with optimistic junctions and road stubs for future development.

The colliery site has been largely scraped clear of debris, the surrounding site is beginning to be contoured and the Ferguson coal yard gone, but the settling ponds polluted with minewater are still there, as is the concrete foundation slab of the pithead, complete with the narrow guage rails for bringing subterranean rolling stock up for maintenance. It looks like it will be quite some time before anyone is living in Shawfair.

As far as I can establish in the dark, there's no nice new convenient footpath / cycleways from the nearby villages at Newton, Millerhill and Danderhall.

But they've built the station anyway and a very nice station it is too, so if you build it perhaps they will come. By car anyway.

I thought it was very nice that all these roads in had been built in such a spirit of optimism for the vehicle-borne future of Shawfair. Wouldn't it be nice, thought I, if we were one half as forward looking and generous when it came to walking and cycling infrastructure.

There's also a great big new recycling / composting / waste-to-energy site nearing completion in the northwest corner of the railway yards land.

"

http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=11202&page=5#post-196189

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Four years ago -

"

The sale, to a new consortium of private developers, is proposed in order to try to revive the ambitious £500m vision for a new town of 5000 homes, schools, parks and offices, on part of the former Monktonhall Colliery in Midlothian.

"

http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=3661

There's an accompanying map which doesn't have cycle routes (unlike the previous South East Wedge proposals) and also seems to show the station and new road in slightly different places than has now been built.

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

This may or may not add extra opportunities -

"

Dozens of jobs are feared to be at risk after Network Rail announced plans to pull out of a key depot and move operations to England.

Workers have been informed of the rail operator’s plans to shift their track engineering and maintenance functions from the Millerhill depot to Carlisle.

"

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/rail-depot-axe-plans-put-40-jobs-in-jeopardy-1-3861464

In theory it could make a north south route easier.

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

http://canmore.org.uk/site/72677/monktonhall-colliery

http://canmore.org.uk/site/263337/millerhill-marshalling-yard

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/202324/response/499974/attach/html/3/ARUP%20Edinburgh%20LRT%20Masterplan%20Final%20Report%20Jan2003.pdf.html

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"

It will hopefully become a core cycling and walking route, linking the new neighbourhoods as they come on stream to existing residential and employment areas as well as the new Shawfair railway station on the Borders rail line.

"

http://www.elgt.org.uk/news/209/48/300-000-for-new-paths-through-Little-France-Park

"hopefully"

Posted 8 years ago #
PS
Member

But they've built the station anyway and a very nice station it is too, so if you build it perhaps they will come. By car anyway.

Been a while since I looked at any plans for this, but the intent was that housing would be built around the station. Common practice in enlightened countries around the world to build the station first, then build out the homes after that, so hopefully it will work (and the development will include segregated facilities).

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Visited on Sunday.

Discovered that there is now a road (not finished) from Old Craighall Road to Whitehill Road.

Not clear if this will become accessible to all or a 'restricted industrial site'.

But just found this -

"

Publicly accessible and bio-diverse landscaping mitigation areas incorporating SUDS ponds and a multi-use pathway.

"

http://www.fccenvironment.co.uk/assets/files/pdf/planning-application/PAD/Part%202%20Design%20and%20Access%20Statement/DesignandAccessStatement.pdf

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/144m-recycling-plant-gets-council-green-light-1-3887795

Posted 8 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

I popped down a couple of weekends ago - I might be wrong, but I couldn't see a footpath linking the station to Newton Village. That can't be right, surely? It would be ideal for that wee collection of houses to have direct access to the station to come into town, just ideal.

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"That can't be right, surely?"

No

But

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

There will be when they have finished the multi-hairpin ped bridge.

Posted 8 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/144m-recycling-plant-gets-council-green-light-1-3887795

When is an incinerator not an incinerator? When it's a "recycling and energy recovery centre". You can look at the floorplans for the place, they're publicly available, all it does is sort then burn rubbish, with the heat being recovered for electricity production and community heat and power (that's if Shawfair is set up to accept CHP, but it's not built yet and it's not guaranteed that it will be).

Edinburgh neatly sidesteps having to build an incinerator by having it built just across the boundary in Midlothian.

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"When is an incinerator not an incinerator?"

When it somehow slips past without 'public outcry'.

Posted 8 years ago #
wingpig
Member

What effect does this have on the whole Landfill Express thing and the potential future of the Powderhall-Meadowbank stretch of rail as a pedestrian/cycle facility?

Posted 8 years ago #
Klaxon
Member

Going by a recent FoI on that matter, there's no plans to completely shut Powderhall WTC right now. Just scale back operations as the new facilities become available. It may be possible that non-landfill trains continue to Dunbar as there's going to be an incinerator built there too.

Posted 8 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

@wingpig this eventually makes the "binliner" train surplus to requirements, which is the absolutely only reason that the short length of line remains open as far as Powderhall.

I know there's pressure / a desire from CRAG etc. to re-open Abbeyhill station, which would require perhaps keeping the trackbed reserved from Piershill Junction as far as the "butterfly", but I honestly can't see that ever happening on Network Rail's watch and with the development now ongoing on the butterfly I think there would be resistance to running a rail line round the back of it (although the trackbed isn't being built over).

On another thread, someone posted recently that they had asked the council if they had any plans for the trackbed yet but the answer was "no not yet, and not until we've decided what's happening with Powderhall", as the latter site may be kept for other purposes than rubbish sorting / transfer.

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/jobs-safe-as-network-rail-backs-down-on-millerhill-1-3897976

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/train-cleaning-depot-to-provide-50-new-jobs-1-4051262

Posted 8 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"(that's if Shawfair is set up to accept CHP, but it's not built yet and it's not guaranteed that it will be)"

Some infrastructure in place...

Posted 7 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"

3.14 Shawfair station is at the centre of what will be a new community in Midlothian with the potential to deliver over 4,000 new homes and significant new employment land over the next 20 years. The scale of the proposal means there will be opportunities to provide more innovative low carbon power and heat solutions to support a more sustainable place.

"

http://www.sesplan.gov.uk/assets/Proposed%20Strategic%20Development%20Plan%2023%2009.pdf

Posted 7 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"

“It is time to seize the moment – and look at a series of new generation new towns,” Ms Davidson will say. “We are already seeing some beautiful new villages and towns springing up in Scotland which have put high quality design, affordable homes, and community values at the heart of their development.

“If we can learn from the ambition of the post-war generation, we can learn from their mistakes too – by, for example, putting the needs of people and communities first. By acknowledging that we are not just building housing, we are in the job of creating homes, nurturing communities, and adding to the beauty of our country.”

"

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/ruth-davidson-calls-for-construction-of-up-to-8-new-towns-1-4548007/amp

Posted 6 years ago #
neddie
Member

We are already seeing some beautiful new villages and towns springing up in Scotland which have put high quality design, affordable homes, and community values at the heart of their development.

That's not what I'm seeing.

I'm seeing cut-and-paste cardboard boxes tacked on to the side of existing villages, with no shops, no schools, no leisure facilities, no employment areas, no public transport, no cycle paths and no sense of community. I'm seeing only suburban roads and the need to drive everywhere.

Obesi-central here we come...

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"I'm seeing cut-and-paste cardboard boxes tacked on to the side of existing villages, with no shops, no schools, no leisure facilities, no employment areas, no public transport, no cycle paths and no sense of community. I'm seeing only suburban roads and the need to drive everywhere."

My feeling too.

No doubt RD will be producing a list of 'nice' new places.

Meanwhile Shawfair has a brand new railway station, a bridge to nowhere (yet), lots of promises of cycle infrastructure and little action.

Perhaps there's a problem with land 'value'(?)

Posted 6 years ago #
Frenchy
Member

Perhaps there's a problem with land 'value'(?)

Just one?

Posted 6 years ago #
cb
Member

I often think the new development at Howgate has been quite nicely done, with the new houses set back from the road behind a green of sorts.

No shops, or anything like that though.

Posted 6 years ago #
PS
Member

I presume Ruth isn't planning on forcing developers to build houses? They've got the land to build house on, but they ain't building them.

As for "beautiful villages", in my book you only get a beautiful village when you build in the vernacular style. I can't think of a single housing development of any size that is built in the vernacular style.

Posted 6 years ago #
Frenchy
Member

This seems like the most appropriate thread, but I didn't look very hard.

http://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/24734/tenders-invited-new-midlothian-road/

Millerhill is getting a bypass.

Posted 6 years ago #
chdot
Admin

“Millerhill is getting a bypass”

Does it need one (more than some other villages)? Never been there when it’s particularly busy, I presume it can be at commuting times.

From link -

“

When it opens, the new road will take all but local traffic away from Millerhill village, giving motorists and other road users swift access to Shawfair railway station, Newton Village, Danderhall and Sheriffhall Park and Ride.

“

Right.

Posted 6 years ago #