Changes to web site (September 2009)
The page dedicated to the Mining phase of the development has been updated. The General Gallery now has content although as yet no descriptions have been added.
Planning Applications (September 2009)
Ecosse Regeneration Ltd has received planning approval from West Lothian Council for a supermarket with associated petrol station at a site West of Polkemmet Road and Dixon Terrace with access coming from the B7066. Much of the western section of West Lothian’s spend takes place elsewhere and this area has been relatively poorly served in terms of larger retail outlets such as the one planned for, here in Heartlands. It is hoped that once built, much of this areas spend will stay here which will be of benefit to local trade and the community. Along with the supermarket an 8 pump filling station with full car wash facilities etc will be built and again will service the needs of the 2000 new houses being built, golfers visiting the 2 championship class courses and employers/employees in the Heartlands Business Park. Along with 400 new jobs being created other benefits will be the improvement of public transport links including possible new routes serving this part of Whitburn.
Planning applications have been submitted for a family restaurant, a leisure/fitness complex and a crèche all withinvarious sections of the Heartlands Business Park.. With the new junction and transport interchange in the pipeline, the business park will be a hub of activity not only for those working there but visitors to, and residents of, Whitburn. The restaurant, fitness centre etc will compliment the business park and provide necessary services to employees, residents & visitors. There has been a lot of criticism about the lack of adequate child care facilities and right from the very start, Ecosse have always planned to incorporate a crèche into the Heartlands Development. Situated near to the new B7066 roundabout means that not only will it serve those working in the business park but it is also on the doorstep of the Village Square and wider housing within Heartlands & Whitburn.
Update (October 2009)
Ecosse Rgeneration Ltd have recieved Outline Planning Permission for the afore mentioned Restaurant, Leisure/Fitness complex and crèche.
Heartlands Business Park has never been designed to be a blank and boring landscape of grey industrial units. The business park for one will act as the primary gateway to Whitburn and local surroundings. As such the design of each building and the landscaping will compliment and enhance the surroundings and be a stimulus not only to those working in the business park but visitors to Whitburn. The provision of such facilities as a crèche, fitness / leisure centre and family restaurant will ensure that the needs of not only those in the Business Park but the local area are well catered for and will help stimulate the economy and provide further employment.
Removal of main electricity pylons (Aug - Sept 2009)
Ecosse Regeneration Ltd right from the very start have said that the Heartlands Development of golf courses, housing and business park would not be spoilt by unsightly overhead cabling and pylons and during August and September 2009 that promise has been fulfilled. Over the last few years the smaller poles and pylons which have cross crossed the housing and golf course areas have been removed and during 2008 new cabling was buried underground from the top of Tippethill Road, along the B7066 and up Polkemmet Road. This work went virtually unnoticed.
It has been the removal of the large 33kV electricity pylons down the length of Polkemmet Road and across the Heartlands Business Park that has significantly changed the landscape. The process began on Monday 10 August on the section from the substation at Dixon Terrace down to the new B7066 roundabout. The cables were detached from the pylon at the roundabout and the following day the wires on the remaining pylons were taken from their mountings and put on to rollers. After that it was merely a process of pulling the cables through the rollers to storage drums. For the pylon half way up Polkemmet Road, a large crane was brought in to lift the top half and place it in the field. The legs of the base were then cut and the crane then hoisted it into the air and placed it alongside the top part where it would be cut up later and disposed off. Further up Polkemmet Road where the crane could not get access, a cable was attached to the top of the pylon which was then pulled down, like a tree being felled. A couple of residents have said the difference was startling, especially one who used to live directly opposite the Polkemmet Road pylon featured in these pictures.
On Monday 21 September the 2nd phase of the operation began with the cables from the pylon at the B7066 to the pylons over the M8 motorway and up to Tippethill being prepared. The M8 motorway was then closed from midnight to 6 a.m. Tuesday morning with diversions in place to allow the cable drop to occur. As before, the cables had been detached from their mountings and hung around pulleys. It was then basically a case of the cables being detached at one and pulling them through the pulleys into a drum at the other end although in reality it was more technical than that!
During the night, the weather was poor with strong winds and intermittent showers but the weather posed no problems for the contractors. While the M8 was closed between Junction 4 and 5 traffic was diverted through Whitburn or along the B7066, the roundabout being traffic managed with STOP / GO boards. Residents (if awake at that time of the night) along the West end of the town must have wondered what was going on with some many articulated lorries passing by their windows, however overall disruption was minimal.
With the cable drop completed successfully during the night the next few days saw the rest of the pylons removed. It only took a few hours to remove a pylon from the face of the earth, from the time the contractors scaled the pylon to remove the pulleys, the pylon being felled, to the cut up pylon being put onto a lorry for scrapping. It is heartening that not only will the Heartlands development benefit from those enhanced vistas but residents in Whitburn and the surrounding areas, especially close to the site, will see an improvement on their horizon along with visitors coming into Whitburn and users of the M8. The overall vistas have also been enhanced with the managed removal of some of the larger unsafe trees back in 2008.
Media interest & site visits (May 2009)
Ecosse were recently hosts to a large business delegation from An Xui, China. A convoy of 5 landrovers took the group of 30 business men and women around the various parts of the site with various stops on the way to describe through translators how the burning bing was removed, the recycling of coal waste and the sheer scale of the project and so on. The party went to the viewing point behind hole 5 on the West golf course from where they could look over just about every part of the Heartlands site. After returning to Cult Farm, Project Manager Alex Muirhead showed them various maps, plans and graphics explaining how the project came about what the current situation was. China, like most of the rest of the World has been affected by the global downturn but the Chinese delegation left in now doubt that Scotland is well placed to deal with the recession and Heartlands will be ideally placed to capitalise when things turn around.
The Heartlands project has been the subject of large stories in a number of industry magazines such as Ground Engineering, Materials Recycling Work, Local Government Executive and Construction News. Sub editors and journalists from various magazines visited the site in April and no doubt Heartlands will feature in other publications in due course. The 3 page Ground Engineering piece dealt with the engineering aspects of the project while Materials Recycling focused on the use of recycled colliery waste etc in the building of the Donald Ross Golf Courses. As has been previously mentioned in this site, interest remains high from all sectors of the media and local groups continue to express a wish to visit the site and see how Heartlands is progressing.
Whitburn Traders Association (May 2009)
The Whitburn Traders Association (WTA) met with Ecosse Regeneration Ltd in May to discuss the Heartlands development and its impact on the rest of the town. During open and frank discussions the WTA commented on the difficulties of the current economic climate but the consensus was that the development would benefit to the town. Ecosse explained that the project was a long term venture and that the WTA should also look forward and work hand in hand with Ecosse to promote trade and commerce within Whitburn. Heartlands not only about developing the old Polkemmet Mine land for future use but it is about rejuvenating the town, allowing it to play a bigger part in commerce, trade, retail and so on.
Heartlands – Beating as strong as ever (April 2009)
Despite the economic downturn, the collapse in the housing market etc it is business as usual, if a little slower and that is to be expected during a recession. Ecosse Regeneration Ltd continues to be in discussion with commercial developers, housing companies, housing associations and so on. The level of interest from house builders remains high; keen to be part of what is a long term project. When the economy recovers, which it will, and the housing market takes off, Heartlands will be in pole position. All the planning permissions are there, the land is prepared and the serviced sites are ready for development.
The Heartlands Business Park infrastructure is complete and as with the housing, Ecosse are in dialogue with companies keen to exploit the potential of business location equidistant between Glasgow & Edinburgh with its own motorway junction. Heartlands Business Park is in THE prime location to service the country. There is no better spot and companies know this, going by the number of discussions Ecosse are having with them. The Scottish Government gave final approval for the new motorway junction in January and construction of Junction 4A Heartlands will commence in the very near future.
Construction of The Donald Ross Memorial Golf courses continues. Almost half of the first course is virtually complete and shaping of the others has started. The golfing, recycling and construction press are covering the project with great interest. In the first project of its kind in the UK the golf courses are being built with a new technique that combines screened colliery waste (the bings) with locally sourced high-quality green organic compost. Heartlands is the largest user of green compost in the UK and now, under Bing 3, the infamous Burning Bing, Ecosse have discovered friable sandstone and this will be processed, screened and used in the construction of the fairways, tees and greens; even the bunkers!. It is recycling at its very best; even the trees came from the site. Heartlands is ground breaking is so many areas and the heart still beats as strongly as ever.
Tree planting in the Heartlands Business Park (April 2009)
With the infrastructure of the Heartlands Business Park complete, the next step is the planting of the trees which will dramatically enhance the landscape. The tree lined boulevard through the business park will act as a feature entrance to Heartlands itself. Planting of Acer Platanoides Deborah (Norway Maple ) has begun along the main dual carriageway between the two inner roundabouts. These 4m high conical shaped trees are between 12 - 15 years old but will grow to about 12 m high when they reach maturity in about 20 years time. Their leaves burst out in a vivid red colour before turning green later in the year. The Acers are being placed three at a time with a larger gap left before the next three Acers and so on. In the gaps will be planted Pine trees. Pinus Nigra Maritima (to give the full name) are large, evergreen conifers with dark foliage. These are due to be planted in the next few weeks and at 8 m tall will dwarf the Acers. In 20 - 30 years time they will stand a majestic 25m high. Sourced from a nursery in Perth, Scotland these trees have been chosen not only for their natural beauty but their hardiness: these are tough trees which will easily cope with the elements. Safety is also important when planting trees and these trees are classed as clear stem in that there will be at least 2m of clear tree trunk with will aid visibility, especially at roundabouts.
Heartland Business Park & Interchange
The Heartlands Business Park infrastructure (roads, drains, electricity etc) is all but complete. In just over a year, contractors R J McLeod have turned disused farmland into the framework for what will become one of Scotland’s premier business parks with 1.5 million feet² of high class commercial accommodation. At the end of 2007 there were just a couple of huts and a solitary excavator sitting alongside the farm road to Balgornie Farm. 2009 sees a new roundabout on the B7066 and business park roadways, well lit by a statuesque army of lamp posts, branching out and cutting through the lush green landscape of the old Cowhill farmland.
What will make Heartlands Business Park one of the best in the country is the location. Being situated directly beside the M8 motorway with a dedicated junction means that the distribution network to Glasgow and Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland (and beyond) is no more than 3 minutes from any part of the business park. This ease of access to Scotland’s main arterial route and the ability to react to changing markets is possibly unparalleled elsewhere in any business park in the country making it a superb location for employees and employers, investors and developers. The business park benefits from being located adjacent to Whitburn and all the amenities a busy town offers. As the development flourishes, all the attractions of the village square and the retail and leisure facilities within Heartlands will be only a few minutes walk from those occupying the business park.
From day one it has been envisaged that the Heartlands Business Park would not be yet another bland, flat site with grey buildings. The main dual carriageway will not only service the industries within the park bit will become the main link to the Heartlands development and Whitburn in general. Set in a parkland setting, with avenues of trees & high quality landscaping and the backdrop of Polkemmet Country Park to the west, the journey off the M8 will ensure that residents, visitors, tourists will have a welcoming entrance to Heartlands. As can bee seen in these photos (and elsewhere within the website) large SUDS ponds and the River Almond tributaries have been carefully sculpted into the landscape, the business park will be a beautiful and stimulating environment in which to work.
In January 2009 the Scottish Parliament gave the go ahead for the new motorway junction. In reaching the decision to proceed with the scheme the Scottish Ministers had considered the Environmental Statements, the opinions expressed in writing by the consultation bodies, Scottish Natural Heritage, West Lothian Council and Historic Scotland. No representations were received from the general public. The full decision & relevant road orders can be downloaded from the Transport Scotland website.
The Environmental Statements can be still be downloaded from this site using the links below.
Media coverage
Despite the economic downturn Heartlands continues to be upbeat, a situation reinforced by the on going coverage in the construction trade media, site visits and invitations to promote the project.
A large delegation from BIGGA (British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association) East Scotland section visited the Heartlands site in February and they were just blown away by the sheer scale of things. What was formally just a few years ago a scene of desolation was now being transformed into two Championship quality golf courses. Being greenkeepers the group took a great interest in how materials from the site were being recycled and used as the foundation of the fairways & greens etc. The Donald Ross Memorial Courses are breaking new ground in construction methods using a new technique that combines screened colliery waste shale with local, environmentally friendly & high-quality compost avoiding the traditional method of importing tonnes of new topsoil and slashing the cost of regenerating the land.
The drainage and the general lay out of the whole site was quite an eye opener for the group from Bigga and gave them plenty of talking points to take back and discuss with other members. It is planned that in the near future a delegation from the West of Scotland will be on site and a possible article about the construction of the Memorial Courses being written for the Greenkeeper International magazine, the official magazine of BIGGA read around the World. More information about BIGGA can be found at their website http://www.bigga.org.uk
Construction News (cnplus.co.uk) have published an in-depth article on their website about the Heartlands project in general, concentrating as would be expected on the reclamation and remediation aspects but also refers to the recycling for the golf courses. Full of detail and facts, this is a very interesting read for those who have been following the progress of the Heartlands development.
