Monday August 10th 2026
Site of proposed holiday park (CampbellMac Developments)
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
Councillors today refused plans for a £5m luxury Scottish Borders holiday park.
The 40-lodge development, creating 18 jobs, had been earmarked for land west and incorporating Earlshaugh Farm in Jedburgh, with an office, reception and a manager’s accommodation lodge.
The application from Little Sodbury-based CampbellMac Developments Ltd, was for the change of use of the land which is currently used for agricultural grazing.
The planning application submitted to Scottish Borders Council received 13 objections on the grounds of loss of and harm to ecological habitats, including trees and sites of Special Scientific Interest, including Jedwater woodlands.
Further objections raised also cited inadequate access, noise pollution and road safety.
A petition against the plans was additionally submitted to the local authority.
Members of SBC’s Planning & Building Standards Committee today endorsed a recommendation for refusal of the application.
Councillor Marshall Douglas, SNP for Tweeddale East, said: “My concerns really revolve around the access and the safe travel routes that don’t appear to be available on that position on the A68, which is an extremely fast road.
“To expect people to walk along the edge of that road or cycle along it is not really on at all. That is the main problem.
“I’d certainly like to encourage this type of development but not in that place. The Borders needs holiday developments and needs investment that we are talking about but this is the wrong place given the state of the road and the lack of potential transport other than cars.”
A report to members, from John Hayward, SBC’s chief planning and housing officer, states: “The landscape and visual impacts of the site are acknowledged by SBC’s landscape architect as being localised; however they consider they are of an unacceptable level and have objected in their consultation response.
“It is agreed that the development would give rise to significant adverse impacts to the Teviot Valley SLA, and these impacts are not outweighed by social, environmental or economic benefits of national or local importance, given the relatively modest scale of the proposals,
“The siting of the development is out-of-character with the existing character of the site and surrounding area, and will result in unacceptable landscape and visual impacts, and to the environment.”
The current owners of the Earlshaugh site acquired it in November 2023.
Prior to this, the farm had been within the same farming family for many years.
It has been in agricultural use as part of the farmstead at Earlshaugh and there are currently approximately 33 acres of grazing land along with a variety of traditional farm buildings associated with its agricultural use.
Currently, the land is grazed under a license agreement for sheep, but in the recent past it has been used for both sheep and cattle as well as horses.
In 2020 the site was the subject of a pre-planning application seeking advice on the potential to change the use of the land for the siting of holiday lodges.
Whilst at the time the application received support in principle, due to the onset of the Covid pandemic, the applicant at the time felt it was not appropriate to be investing in a full planning application whilst there was so much uncertainty regarding the pandemic and its longer term implications on the tourism market.
The new owners are now keen to resurrect the project and in the intervening period have commissioned various reports and surveys required to support a planning application as well as carrying out a pre-application 12-week public consultation exercise.
Tweet Share on Facebook
