Letter: Not much planning at this development

I AM writing in relation to the article titled 'Landfill operator warned over stench' by Jenny Fyall (1 August). I was struck by the photograph (but not entirely surprised) showing the proximity of the houses to the landfill. The houses are obviously relatively new. This raises two fundamental questions with the whole premise of your article:

1) How could planners allow new build houses to be located so close to an active landfill?

2) Who would buy a house next to an active landfill ?

If the planning decision had been the other way round there is absolutely no chance that a new landfill would be allowed to open next to existing housing.

The planners and Sepa (since it gets sight of all new planning applications) should take the lion's share of responsibility here. Some responsibility also lies with the landfill operator. The developer and the homeowners share the responsibility of building and then owning a property in such an inappropriate location.

As with so many inappropriate developments in our town centres and industrial areas, development greed seems to have won over common sense. Too many developments in our town centres are lost opportunities to improve them. Instead we have a gradual decline caused by developers being allowed to use cheap and nasty finishing materials and squeezing flatted accommodation into every available gap site.

Industrial areas should be just that - reserved for industrial use. Where residential development, retail and leisure developments are brought into such areas it is inevitable that conflicts occur.

It's rather rich that Sepa has been party to this scenario at every stage and now it is attempting to appear like the knight on the white charger riding in to sort things out that they could have prevented in the first place.

Perhaps Mr Swinney could look for his budget savings with an agency that obviously doesn't work.

P Hickey, Bathgate