Hillend hotel and village bid scrapped

A CONTROVERSIAL bid to create a five-star hotel and tourist village at Hillend has been scrapped after the developer sold off his stake in the land.

Proposals for a 250-room hotel, 14 apartments and 22 holiday lodges near Midlothian Ski Centre have been abandoned by Fife-based applicant Calderstones Land Ltd following the private sale of a property and the land near the planned site last week.

Calderstones had appeared to ignore repeated council demands for an environmental impact assessment but it now seems the firm was in the throes of selling off the plot.

Development director Ian McCully made no comment on the application being withdrawn but said the real estate had been sold privately to a purchaser who was "leaving their options open".

A statement in the planning section of Midlothian Council website read: "Due to the applicants not providing further required information, they were advised that the application would be treated as withdrawn from 30/09/2010. No adverse response was received - the application can now be regarded as withdrawn."

If the application had been granted, neighbouring Midlothian Ski Centre - which has been running at a loss of more than 500,000 per year - would have benefited from substantial developer contributions to revamp the facility, including widening its slopes as well as improvements to transport links and parking.

However, when outline plans were lodged with Midlothian Council two years ago, they faced stiff opposition from community and environmental groups over the potential impact on the Pentland Hills.

Christine Ireland, secretary of Damhead and District Community Council, previously branded the development Edinburgh's "Mini-Trump" in reference to the American tycoon Donald Trump's contentious golf resort bid for Aberdeenshire, while a Scottish Government design quango, Architecture and Design Scotland, described it as failing to establish "any clear principles for a relationship to the landscape".

Norman Tinlin chairman of Fairmilehead Community Council, one of the protest groups against the bid, said: "We are delighted that it's been withdrawn and I hope this now marks the end of it altogether.

"We were very concerned about the size of it, the additional traffic that would occur as a result and how it would look. The proposed development would destroy one of the iconic views of the Hills."

He added: "An environmental impact assessment should have been submitted with the original application but they did not and Midlothian Council kept asking for one.

"They said if they did not get one by such and such a date they will take it that the application has been withdrawn."