Gardeners furious after Midlothian Council tears up flower bed

The plant bed around the Newtongrange Miners' Wheel.

The owners of a dilapidated house on the main street of a conservation village have been praised for not ‘razing it to the ground’.

John and Lisa Stewart lodged plans for a rear extension to the house on Pathhead Main Street, after discovering approved plans which came with the house did not work.

They said that after buying the property it became clear the extension which had been given the green light did not have enough headroom on the stairs or in the attic to meet Building Standards.

But when they lodged fresh plans with the council they were rejected by officers as being “unsympathetic” to the traditional character of the building.

A meeting of Midlothian Council’s Local Review Body today heard councillors who visited the property ahead of the meeting had to “walk the plank” as they moved through it.

Review Body chairman Councillor Russell Imrie said they had to balance on planks of wood as they moved from room to room.

And he praised the couple for not simply demolishing the house and starting again.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Imrie said: “The house is in that bad a dilapidated state it would have been easier to raze it to the ground and rebuild it than what they are doing, so good on them for doing this, it is a task and a half.

“In order to make it nice it is going to cost a lot of money to do it that way and they would have been cheaper demolishing it.”

The review body upheld the appeal.