Monday October 26th 2026
Councillors rejected a second proposal for a new home in the garden of Kirkfield House on the fringe of West Calder (copyright: West Lothian Council)
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
Revised plans to build a house in the garden of another home in West Calder have been rejected.
Local councillor Pauline Clark had supported the redrawn proposals for the garden at Kirkfield House in West Calder.
But others on the Development Management Committee backed planning officers, agreeing that allowing the build would “diminish the area’s unique” character.
The applicant Hugh Kelly has appealed against the refusal of a plan for a bungalow lodged earlier this year. The Division of Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) is currently considering that appeal.
The new plan is for a three bedroom two storey home in the large garden of the Kirkfield House which sits on the fringe of West Calder on Hartwood Road.
The crucial difference between this latest proposal and the one in April is that the new two storey design preserves the row of trees along the boundary with the road.
That concession was not enough to change the minds of planning officers. They maintained earlier objections to building in the countryside, and in the garden ground of the existing house.
A report to the DMC said: “The introduction of a dwelling within the front garden of a property at Kirkfield is inappropriate and out of keeping with the spatial pattern of the immediate area.
“Given the established rural pattern, the generous spacing between existing dwellings and the local road, and the size of the application site, the proposal would represent over-development, resulting in a crammed form of development which is uncharacteristic of the area.
“The development would diminish the area’s unique rural character and lead to unjustified urbanisation within the countryside.”
Councillor Clark, in whose Fauldhouse and Breich Valley West Calder lies, told the meeting there were examples of in fill type development on the same road and the addition of the new homes would not be out of place. “I would be be minded to approve this”.
Her proposal to support the development was not seconded and the committee rejected the plan.
In April Mr Kelly applied for planning permission for a three bedroom bungalow in the garden of his home.
An agent for the applicants said they planned to occupy the new house with their existing home passing on to family. There were no objections to that proposal and planning papers acknowledged that the building’s design was acceptable.
The Development Management Committee heard that the April proposals contravened 12 planning policies, including the removal of a row of mature trees lining the roadside boundary at Hartwood Road on the southern fringe of the village.
A decision on that application has yet to be issued by the DPEA.
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