More community support for Gilbertfield

Oct 27 2010 by Kenny Smith, Rutherglen Reformer

HALFWAY Community Council have given their support to the Save Gilbertfield campaign.

At their meeting last week, representatives from the group campaigning against the building of 350 new homes in the area, appealed to the community council for their backing.

Last month their counterparts in Cambuslang Community Council unanimously gave the campaigners their backing.

Save Gilbertfield’s John Edgar said: “We now have over 2500 signatures on our petition.”

Angela Bilsland, chair of Halfway Community Council, said: “The action group recently made representation to the community council in a bid to highlight their campaign to stop a housing development planned by McTaggert and Miekle, in the Gilberfield area of Halfway. The group have highlighted the negative impact this will have such as concerns about flooding and the harm to local wildlife.

“At the most recent meeting the community council voted to support the group in its strive to halt the development. The community council are seeing, more and more countryside being eroded. There is no redress. We have already seen the loss of rare species at other local sites.

“Once again, South Lanarkshire Council will have another financial gain. In light of this, there is scepticism about how impartial the local authority will view the planning submission. In addition given past experience, we will not be surprised if subsequent applications to increase the number of units are submitted by further developers.”