HUNDREDS of residents in a new East Lothian town face a wait of two years before they have their own shops, developers have revealed.
Planning permission for Blindwells town centre still has to be granted by East Lothian Council despite more than 340 houses now being occupied.
The lack of shops and community facilities has led to one local community council accusing those involved of taking a "piecemeal" approach to the development which has created a large housing estate.
A meeting of East Lothian Council’s planning committee heard from Hargreaves, who are developing the overall site, that they were waiting for the local authority to grant consent for the centre, which will include shops, offices and eventually a supermarket.
However they warned it will not happen overnight and revealed they were looking into setting up temporary units to cater for residents as a short term solution.
The new town of Blindwells is being promoted as a place to live and work in East Lothian with promises of a "vibrant town centre" at its heart. However Niall McLean, from Hargreaves, said that work could only begin once planning approval is granted.
He told the committee: “We don’t have planning consent for the town centre as yet, so therefore it is not possible to build the shops.
“We are in dialogue with retailers but until they have that certainty of consent they are not going to commit.”
McLean said a meeting had been held with the newly formed Blindwells Tenants and Residents Association and they were left "in no doubt at all" about locals' eagerness to have shops on the site.
He said: “We are looking into how we might provide that with temporary structures just now to mitigate for the fact the town centre is running behind where we had hoped to be at this stage. We now have more than 340 houses occupied.”
Asked how long it could be before the town centre would be up and running, McLean said: “From the granting of consent I would be working on the basis of another couple of years to build, construct and occupy the units which is why we are looking at temporary accommodation.
“In terms of critical mass, a supermarket generally will look for circa 1000 units and by the time we have built that we will not be too far off that.
“There has to be chimney pots but there is also an element of if you build it they will come, so when we have the formal consent for the town centre we can start the formal marketing and look to bring it forward.”
Prestonpans Community Council had objected to an application before the committee asking them to agree conditions attached to housing plans on the site, urging elected members to halt any more homes being built until issues around a lack of community facilities had been dealt with.
The community council, which has raised concerns for years that the new town would be "parasitic" using facilities in the neighbouring community instead of having its own, voiced fears this was becoming a reality as houses continued to be added with no town centre.
In a letter to planners, they said: “So far, retail and commercial spaces, permanent community facilities and a medical centre are nothing but vague, meaningless promises at Blindwells.
"Throughout the long years of planning for this enlarged housing development, the neighbouring communities were promised by both developer and East Lothian Council alike, that a 'New Town' would be built next to them.
“New Towns are supposed to see a mix of housing, offices, retail, industrial, commercial and civic buildings, along with regulated transport infrastructure, open spaces and recreational facilities all being built at the same time. This quite evidently is not happening at Blindwells.
“Indeed, all we have seen is the introduction of a massive housing development that adversely impacts the already overburdened infrastructure around it.”
Councillor John McMillan told the committee that while he had taken the community council comments on board there was a masterplan for Blindwells and it was "far from being a piecemeal development".
The committee unanimously agreed the conditions attached to the application.
