Tuesday June 16th 2026
Linton Hotspur stadium
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
A ‘let there be light’ bid at a Borders village football club has scored success with planners.
Scottish Borders Council has endorsed a planning application from Linton Hotspur FC for the installation of 11 LED floodlights on 15m high columns at its ground at Deanfoot Road in West Linton.
The club currently plays in the East of Scotland League Second Division.
The floodlighting is needed to improve the useability of both the main and practice pitches and for the “social benefit of the local community”.
Eight of the floodlights are to be located around the main pitch with the remaining three being sited on the south eastern boundary of the practice pitch, south-east of the main pitch.
Although the site is located within the countryside, there are some residential properties nearby.
The closest of those is roughly 170m north-west, with the next nearest being about 200m north-west.
Other properties lie some 220m to the west and 330m to the south-west.
In approving the application, SBC planning officer Ranald Dods accepted that installation of floodlighting into a rural location “could have an impact on those properties”.
He set out conditions to mitigate any issues.
In his report, Mr Dods states: “There does not appear to be a risk of direct amenity harm. However, the site is within the countryside outside the edge of the village, the character of which needs to be safeguarded generally, and there is also a reasonable need to minimise harm to ecological activity.
“As such, I recommend a condition restricting the time period during which the floodlights can be operated in order to safeguard the character and amenity of the rural setting and in the interest of protected species which may be present in the locality.”
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