Rosewell Mains House

150 Carnethie Street

Rosewell

EH24 9AA

Tel 0131 440 2086

Email

29 October 2012

Kingsley Drinkwater

Senior Planning Officer

Midlothian Council

Fairfield House

8 Lothian Road

Dalkeith

EH22 3ZN

Dear Mr Drinkwater

REF:12/00633/SCO REQUEST FOR SCOPING OPINION ON EXTRACTION OF COAL AND FIRECLAY BY OPENCAST METHODS

CAULDHALL MOOR, PENICUIK, MIDLOTHIAN

Rosewell & District Community Council (RDCC) has had two meetings with Theo Phillip and Colin Ortlepp of Scottish Coal and attended their public exhibition in Rosewell on 3rd October.

At this stage, RDCC has received no major objections to the proposal, but we wish to submit the following conditions and ask that you take them into consideration during your deliberations. Paragraph numbering in brackets refers to the Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report.

  1. (4.4.1) Hours of Operation. Monday-Friday - 6am to 2pm: 2pm to 10pm.: 10pm to 6am. Saturdays - until 1pm: closed on Sunday. We note that reduced operations at night below ground will mean no coal recovery, no coal dispatch and no blasting and hope this is strictly adhered to. Scottish Coal has informed us that noise and vehicle movement will be restricted to the hours of 7am-7pm and we would want this to be confirmed. We also wish to have notification of which public holidays will be observed.
  1. (4.5.1) Coal Transport and Access. Approximately 10 loaded vehicles per hour (and presumably the same number returning to the site – ie every 3 minutes along the A6094 - is a considerable amount of extra traffic over a very long timescale on a stretch of road that has seen many accidents and some fatalities in recent years. We would ask that you consider further speed restrictions from the site entrance to the Bonnyrigg Bypass at Hopefield. Ideally a 40 mph speed limit should be observed along the whole stretch of this road with effective monitoring systems in place. Contractors must be made aware that speeding will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and Scottish Coal should ensure that speed-monitoring devices are placed in site vehicles to ensure drivers are respecting speed limits. We note that a review, by the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland Agency, has recommended cutting maximum speeds by up to 20mph on certain “A” roads, and we would wish speed restrictions along the above-mentioned route along the A6094 to be reviewed under this new legislation. Stringent road sweeping measures would be required to be in place and effectively monitored.
  1. The roundabout linking Rosewell's Fairmeadow estate with the A6094 is already dangerous with the current volume of traffic: the design of the roundabout allows motorists travelling from the Shewington area towards Bonnyrigg to drive straight across it without needing to slow down. This causes a great risk of collision with road users joining the bypass with right of way from Fairmeadow. Given the proposed increase in traffic levels we would like to request that Scottish Coal consider possible methods of improving road safety at this roundabout, so as to encourage motorists to approach the roundabout in a safe manner in the context of the large number of lorries that will be using the route.
  1. We would wish Scottish Coal to set up and publicise a dedicated telephone number and email address to be used by members of the public to complain directly to Scottish Coal about any issues causing concern arising from the development.
  1. You will be aware that there is no lighting on the A6094 Rosewell Bypass and until further roundabouts are installed as part of future developer contributions, speeding vehicles are a cause of great concern to residents – especially in bad weather conditions. These concerns are frequently voiced at RDCC meetings. We would ask that lighting at each of the Rosewell entrances be enhanced to increase visibility for vehicles entering and exiting the village. The same should be applied at the Gourlaw filters crossroads in view of the hidden dip, which has caused accidents in the past.
  1. Residents of Newbigging Cottages, living in close proximity to the site, have made RDCC aware of their serious reservations relating to the transportation of the coal, accident rates on the A6094 and various health and safety concerns. One of these residents has already submitted comments to Scottish Coal and we have advised her to forward them to you. RDCC fully supports their concerns.
  1. In view of the history of subsidence damage to residents’ properties within Rosewell, and of course also from a road safety perspective, we would wish a total ban on heavy site vehicles entering the village. All contractors must be made aware of this proviso. For example, notices placed in cabs and signage erected before each entrance to the village.
  1. We have discussed Air Quality and Dust, Noise and Vibration monitoring, which greatly concerns residents, with Scottish Coal, and would wish to see meaningful readings being taken, not only at the sites outlined in (Paras 6.8.4, 6.9.4 and 6.10.4), but also within the village itself, to ensure the health and safety of all residents. The wind speeds are extremely strong in our area and it is important that this is also taken into account when making these assessments. We would wish to be consulted on the location of such monitoring devices.
  1. Over its lifetime the development will provide up to £2.75m towards community projects. However, the Midlothian Council-run Gourlaw Sub-Committee, which administers the Gourlaw/Newbigging/Shewington Opencast Trust Fund, had been suspended for 18 months, due to the investigation into dispersal of funds to Bonnyrigg Rose Junior Football Club. We are all aware of the bad publicity and community ill feeling that has arisen from this incident, and do not wish to see this repeated. With this in mind, both RDCC and Rosewell Development Trust (RDT), would much prefer to deal directly with Scottish Coal regarding the distribution of any future funds - as we believe is the case in other local authority areas affected by opencast development. For these reasons, we would strongly object to any involvement of Midlothian Council in this process.
  1. We will vigorously campaign for substantial future funding to be used for the benefit of Rosewell & District residents. For example, Rosewell Development Trust (RDT) was set up with the aim of improving community amenities and events. Please see for information on its aims and objectives. RDT is in the process of raising funds to support the development of a much-needed community hub in the village for residents and visitors, and would welcome contributions from any funds arising from the Cauldhall Moor development to help achieve its aims. This fits perfectly with Scottish Coal’s criteria to aid community projects.
  1. We are pleased to note that the project will directly create up to 230 new jobs, including apprenticeship opportunities at the Edinburgh College (formerly Jewel & Esk) and would ask that these jobs are advertised locally to ensure that local people are made aware and can thus benefit from them.

I hope you find these comments helpful and that they are taken on board prior to the full planning application being submitted by Scottish Coal. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you require further clarification.

Yours sincerely

Dave Mackay

Chair

/Copy addressees

Copies to: Theo Philip, Planning Manager, Scottish Resources Group, The Scottish Coal Company Limited

Local Councillors

RDCC Committee

1