BROXBURN, & LOCAL AREA COMMITTEE

THE CANDLEWORKS SITE, BROXBURN

REPORT BY PLANNING SERVICES MANAGER

A. PURPOSE OF REPORT

To provide the Local Area Committee with an overview of the planning history and planning policy issues relative to the Candleworks site.

B. RECOMMENDATION

For the Local Area Committee to note the contents of this paper.

C. SUMMARY OF IMPLICATIONS

I Council Values Working with and for our communities, focusing on our customers’ needs; being honest, open and accountable; making best use of our resources; and working in partnership.

II Policy and Legal (including The site is allocated for mixed use in the Strategic Environmental adopted West Local Plan. Assessment, Equality Issues, Health or Risk Assessment)

III Resources - (Financial, The Council owns part of the site extending to Staffing and Property) 4.9 hectares.

IV Consultations Property Services, Transportation and Environmental Health.

D. TERMS OF REPORT

Location and Ownership

The Candleworks site comprises a relatively large area of vacant and derelict land on the north-eastern perimeter of Broxburn, immediately to the north of the Union Canal. It is bounded to the north and east by industrial premises and to the west by residential property. See Appendix 1. The site extends to approximately 7.7ha with Council owning 4.9 ha of the total site area, Chesapeake Ltd (formerly Field Packaging) 2.2 ha and SG Baker 0.6 ha. A plan showing the ownership is copied as Appendix 2.

Site History

The site was originally part of the Broxburn Oil Works from the 1890s to the late 1920s. It was one of the first oil shale works in . The works retorted oil shale to produce heavy oil, paraffin and candle wax and many more by-products. (See Appendix 3). During this time a considerable amount of waste products would have been produced and these tended to be disposed of haphazardly, either on or in the immediate vicinity of the site.

Various industrial undertakings, including a sulphuric acid works and a sack manufacturer, are known to have occupied the site after this time and it is understood that some industrial use was still being made of the site, perhaps as late as the 1980’s.

Planning Policy Background

The Broxburn Area Local Plan (adopted 1991) allocated the majority of the site for industrial purposes. However, no proposals for such uses ever came forward.

When the Council began preparing a new local plan it was subsequently decided that it would be more appropriate to develop this important canal side location for mixed uses as this would be more compatible with the then recently completed residential development immediately to the west of the site.

In the 2001 draft version of the West Lothian Local Plan the site was identified for residential development. This was later amended and the allocation was widened to allow for mixed use in what became the Finalised West Lothian Local Plan.

This allocation was retained and confirmed when that plan was eventually adopted in 2009 following a Public Local Inquiry. Importantly, the Candleworks site was also shown to be part of the East Broxburn Core Development Area (CDA).

The Adopted West Lothian Local Plan is a very important document that provides the statutory planning framework for guiding the location of development in West Lothian. Planning legislation requires that, when determining planning applications, the Council must have regard to the plan, and determination must be in accordance with the plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Appendix 4 shows how local plan policy relates to the site.

Policy CDA 8 of the Adopted West Lothian local Plan allocates Candleworks as a mixed use development site within the East Broxburn Core Development Area.

Policy TC 9 supports further retailing within Broxburn town centre commensurate with serving the expanding town population arising from the planned major housing developments identified in the Adopted West Lothian Local Plan 2009. It goes on to state that any proposal identified outwith the town centre will require to be justified against government planning policy guidance.

The route of the remaining section of the distributor road, between Clarkson Road and Greendykes Road, is specifically safeguarded under Policy TRAN 30 of the Adopted West Lothian Local Plan 2009. Provision of this link, together with an improved junction at Greendykes Road, is a prerequisite to the development of the Candleworks site for a variety of uses that include housing and retail development and it is extremely important for the development of the East Broxburn Core Development Area (CDA).

Proposals for a distributor road, or perhaps more accurately a town centre by-pass, running from the A89, around the north of Broxburn and terminating on the east side of East Mains Industrial Estate can be found in the Transport chapter of the now superseded Broxburn Area Local Plan 1991 (BALP). It identified the Greendykes Road / West Main Street junction as a particular problem and concluded that it should be relieved.

Mention is also made of a new spine road running north from the A89 Holygate roundabout, across Main Street, sweeping through the Pyothall housing allocation and the Candleworks and Albyn Industrial sites to join up with East Main Street. Policy T1 of the BALP specifically identified this as a project to be constructed in conjunction with the development of the areas traversed.

In the event, the Kirkhill / Pyothall and Holmes areas were developed for housing in the late 1980s and early 1990s and a significant element of the proposed town centre distributor road, which now known as Blyth Road/Clarkson Road, was constructed by the house builders, terminating at its northern extremity to the west of the Candleworks site.

Planning Briefs

In addition to having been specifically identified and allocated for redevelopment in the local plan, Candleworks has also been the subject of two planning briefs.

Planning briefs are designed to guide the development of land to be disposed of by the council. They outline the planning issues related to the site and identify key design, environmental and infrastructure requirements of the council as well as any additional benefits that may be required as a result of the development of a site.

Planning briefs are material planning considerations, to be taken into account in the determination of future applications for planning permission relevant to a site.

The first of the two planning briefs was drafted and approved by the Council in 2002. This brief stated that the redevelopment of the site should consist of a mix of residential, business (class 4), and other compatible “good neighbour” uses and, potentially, retail uses. However, it was made clear that redeveloping the whole site for housing would not be acceptable, principally for infrastructure reasons (school capacity).

In 2007 the opportunity arose to review and bring the planning brief up to date.

In the interim period the Council commissioned an assessment of the Candleworks site and this identified potentially significant ground contamination (associated with its former use as an oil works) and went on to inform the production of a remediation strategy. Consequently, one of the main additions to the new planning brief was a requirement for contamination to be addressed satisfactorily as a precursor to any redevelopment of the site. No changes were made to the preferred uses of the site. These remain as stated above. The new planning brief did, however, acknowledge that the site had since become part of the East Broxburn Core Development Area (CDA) and that it’s redevelopment was significantly important for helping to accelerate the implementation of the CDA. In particular, there was the need to secure the extension of Clarkson Road, the local distributor road.

Additionally, this was also seen as yielding important traffic and environmental benefits for the town centre. This has latterly taken on greater significance with it becoming evident that there is now a need to address air quality issues in Broxburn town centre and that the most acute air quality problems are associated with the junction of East Main Street and Greendykes Road. It’s almost certain that the council will have to designate an Air Quality Management Area and one of the most effective and practical responses to this will be to take traffic away from the town centre. Completion of the distributor road would obviously make an important contribution in this regard.

The new planning brief was reported to the Council’s Enterprise and Development Committee on 23 January 2007 and approved. It was also agreed that the Property Services Manager should make arrangements with the other joint owners to market the site.

Current Issues

It had long been the council’s preferred strategy to work with the other site owners and to have the entire site comprehensively remediated, and possibly marketed, as a single entity. However the prospect of this receded when the two private owners entered into separate negotiations to dispose of their respective interests in the site to a third party, now known to be Tesco.

While no planning applications have yet been made, members of the committee should be aware that Tesco formally lodged a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) on 30th June and this is perhaps the clearest indication yet of its intention to do so.

The PAN states that Tesco is contemplating redeveloping the east side of the greater Candleworks site for a retail store, associated petrol filling station and car parking. Significantly, the developer is also proposing to fund and implement the missing section of the local distributor road from Clarkston Road to Greendykes Road, as required and provided for in the WLLP and the planning brief, and the remediation of the contaminated land which is known to be present on the site.

PANs were introduced under the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006, the legislative framework intended to modernise the planning system and make it more inclusive and more efficient.

One of the innovations it introduced was splitting development proposals into three categories: national, major and local and requiring applicants for national and major developments to undertake public consultation prior to the submission of a planning application. (Supermarket and a residential development in excess of 50 houses would constitute major developments.) This is to ensure that communities are made aware of, and have an opportunity to comment on, such proposals before an application is made.

Procedurally, prospective applicants are required to submit a PAN at least 12 weeks prior to the submission of a formal planning application. They are usually required to consult with every community council whose area is within or adjoins the application site, but in the case of Broxburn where there is currently no elected community council, it has become practice to notify/consult each of the four ward members in lieu of this.

The consultation process must also include at least one public event where members of the public have an opportunity to make comments and details of the event must be published in a local newspaper no less than seven days prior to it event being held. In this instance it is understood that Tesco propose to mount a public exhibition, probably in the Strathbrock Partnership Centre, towards the end of August or beginning of September, but details have still to been finalised and confirmed.

Pre-application consultation has been introduced specifically to facilitate engagement between prospective developers and those who can represent the community’s views.

It offers the opportunity to mitigate negative impacts and misunderstandings and deal with community issues that can hopefully be addressed before proposals are finalised and formally lodged by way of a planning application.

A good illustration of how this exercise engages developers directly with local communities is that any comments made in response to the pre-application notification are sent to the prospective applicant and not the Council. This stage in the process quite deliberately seeks to get applicants and the community communicating with each other.

Prior to lodging a PAN, agents for Tesco had been in discussion with the council’s Property Manager about matters of mutual interest regarding the development of the site, but specifically seeking to negotiate a servitude right of access over council land between Clarkson Road and Greendykes Road.

At the same time, and in view of events, the Council’s Property Manager has been re- appraising the strategy for securing the re-development of the residual land in public ownership and has indicated that the Council will also bring forward a planning application of its own for residential development on the western part of the Candleworks site comprising approximately 100 units. This recognises the fact that the approved planning brief requires the redevelopment of the site to be progressed in “a co-ordinated and comprehensive” manner.

The Council is, of course, subject to the same planning regulations as any other prospective developer and it should be noted that it too has now lodged a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN).

As indicated previously, the Adopted West Lothian Local Plan is supportive of redeveloping this important brownfield site, and part retail use/part residential is already provided for in principle. Any detailed proposals which ultimately come forward must be in accordance with the relevant policies of the West Lothian Local Plan and the approved planning brief.

Other considerations – West Lothian Retail Capacity Study

In the event of a planning application being made for retail development (specifically a supermarket) there would be a requirement to have regard to the West Lothian Retail Capacity Study which was commissioned by the Council in 2008, and which focuses on ‘convenience’ retail capacity, that is mainly the sales of food and drink. The study provides:

„ a general market overview; „ an analysis of expenditure patterns; „ an analysis of expenditure ‘leakage’ in and out of West Lothian and between towns; „ an assessment of the adequacy of provision; „ a capacity analysis; and „ an assessment of potential locations

The study concluded:-

„ that while most of West Lothian’s population was accessible by car to at least one foodstore, coverage was not uniform and Broxburn, in particular, was one of several towns where choice was limited; „ that there was a significant flow of expenditure from surrounding catchments to Almondvale town centre; „ unlike some other towns, Broxburn has the capacity to accommodate some new retail development ranging from 591sqm to 1,813 sq m (net) until 2016 and a further 360 sq m to 824 sq m (net) between 2016 and 2026; „ Candleworks meets government guidance requiring sites to be capable of being made conveniently and safely accessible to all sectors of the community; „ proposals for planning permission which exceed 2,500 sqm gross will require to be accompanied by a Retail Assessment and will need to be demonstrated that there would be no unacceptable individual or cumulative impact on the vitality and viability of the network of centres in the Development Plan.

The study was reported to the Development and Planning PDSP on 25 November 2008 and to a full meeting of the Council Executive on 23 June 2009 where it was agreed that the Council should support one of two scenarios in the study, specifically one which promoted the retention of spend in each catchment area.

In considering any application for a supermarket the council would also have to have regard to Scottish Government planning policy (SPP), specifically the subject polices dealing with town centres and retailing.

It should however be appreciated that the SPP is principally concerned with the appropriateness of land use and not retail competition.

One of the key requirements is that new retail development should be located as close to an existing town centre as possible and this will be one of several factors to be examined and appraised as part of the formal planning application process.

Benefits of Redeveloping the Candleworks site

There is no doubt that the redevelopment of the Candleworks site will be a challenging undertaking, particularly since it is being required to deliver such substantial benefits to Broxburn and beyond. These include:

„ improvement to the visual and environmental amenity of the site and its surroundings by ridding it of a degraded landscape; „ the delivery of new canal related facilities, thereby enhancing opportunities for developing tourism; „ the comprehensive decontamination of a site and watercourses, historically polluted by industrial waste; „ the completion of the distributor road, between Clarkson Road and Greendykes Road, as a means of reducing traffic volumes at the junction of East Main Street and Greendykes Road and benefitting the town centre in terms of easing traffic flow and congestion and helping to improve localised air quality; and „ ‘kickstarting’ and facilitating the development of the East Broxburn CDA which is key to the future growth and prosperity of the town.

These works will inevitably require significant financial investment and it is therefore only likely to come about on the back of a high value development, residential and retail being appropriate examples of this.

Redeveloping the site, for whatever uses, will not be without its difficulties. It is recognised that any planning application will raise detailed issues, for example access, parking, traffic impact, land remediation and impact on the town centre. However, these are all matters which are routinely considered in the course of determining a planning application.

What Happens Next?

It will be appreciated that the Council has an ‘interest’ in the re-development of the Candleworks site on quite different levels. Firstly, it is a joint owner of the site, and as such, it has an obligation to ensure that it gets best value from the assets it holds. These responsibilities and interests are exercised and administered by Property Management, albeit that any decision will ultimately require to be endorsed by elected members.

In it’s quite separate role as planning authority, the Council has the wider responsibility of ensuring that the site is redeveloped in accordance with prevailing planning policies and guidance at national and local level, while at the same time being sensitive to, and taking account of, public opinion. It also has a statutory responsibility for securing the remediation of the contaminated land.

There is currently no firm indication what the timetable might be for the submission of planning applications. However, the recent lodging of Proposal of Application Notices (PANs) paves the way for an application to be made by Tesco as early as the end of September and the Council a little later.

It has also established that these proposals are subject to new regulations requiring pre-application consultation, and with the consultation process having now been formally triggered, it will be overseen and administered by officers in Development Management.

In recognition of the fact that the proposals relate to the same site, and are essentially two halves of the greater whole, there is a lot of sense in trying to co-ordinate the pre- application consultation, and to this end both parties have been encouraged to mount a joint public event in order that the proposals can be viewed in their full context.

In due course, if choosing to go on and make planning applications, Tesco and the Council will be obliged to submit Pre-Application Consultation Reports detailing the consultations undertaken and any changes made to the proposals as a result.

In addition to engaging in the pre-application consultation process, the opportunity will, of course, also still be afforded to third parties to make representations on subsequent planning applications and for these to be considered by the elected members of the committee who will determine their outcome. E. CONCLUSION

To note the contents of the report.

F. BACKGROUND REFERENCES x Broxburn Area Local Plan 1991 x Adopted West Lothian Local Plan 2009 x West Lothian Retail Capacity Study 2008 – Final Report, Halcrow Group Ltd x West Lothian Retail Capacity Study 2008 – Report to Development and Transport PDSP, 26 November 2008 x West Lothian Retail Capacity Study 2008 – Report to Council Executive, 23 June 2009 x Candleworks Planning Briefs (2002 and 2007) x Scottish Planning Policy : A statement of Scottish Government policy x Planning Advice Note 33 : Development of Contaminated Land x Planning Advice Note 38 : Housing Land x Planning Advice Note 52 : Planning and Small Towns x Planning Advice Note 59 : Improving Town Centres x Planning Advice Note 67 : Housing Quality x Planning Advice Note 75 : Planning for Transport x Planning Advice Note 82 : Local Authority Interest Developments

Appendices/Attachments: Four (1) Location plan showing Candleworks site and the safeguarded route of the local distributor road.

(2) Plan showing ownership of the Candleworks site.

(3) Vintage photographs of the Candleworks site.

(4) Extract from the Adopted West Lothian Local Plan 2009.

Contact Person: Steve Lovell, Planning Officer, 01506 775276,

Email: [email protected] Craig McCorriston, Planning Services Manager, County Buildings, , EH49 7EZ

12 August 2010 APPENDIX 1

LOCATION PLAN SHOWING CANDLEWORKS SITE AND SAFEGUARDED ROAD LINE APPENDIX 2

PLAN SHOWING OWNERSHIP OF THE CANDLEWORKS SITE APPENDIX 3

VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE CANDLEWORKS SITE

„ Looking west, with the Candleworks site mid picture „ Candle manufacturing

„ Refinery works „ Shale oil ‘retort’ APPENDIX 4

EXTRACT FROM THE ADOPTED WEST LOTHIAN LOCAL PLAN 2009 SHOWING THE CANDLEWORKS SITE