Bosco Santimano returns to give us his opinion on what he feels is the hot topic of the day…
Having lived in Peebles for over 20 years its quite amazing and alarming at the same time to see the increase of housing developments in a very short space of time. Individuals and families from across the UK have made a conscious decision to move to the Scottish Borders especially Peebles what with its close proximity to Edinburgh, the Capital city, beautiful landscapes, outdoor activities and a safe place to live and bring up young children. Unfortunately, what has not kept pace with changes to Peebles landscape is the expansion of its infrastructure i.e., NHS services, schools, transport, roads, economic opportunities for young people and other public services alongside these new developments. Progress is not a bad thing, but done without foresight and vision can turn a beautiful place into another over crowded city.
When I first moved to Peebles, developers were already carving out Peebles for their own economic interests in collusion with the powers that be. It was pretty much known in those days that Peebles was a sleeping suburb of Edinburgh where people went to work out-with the town to places like Edinburgh and Glasgow due to lack of work opportunities in and around Peebles. Plus, a big chunk of the local population are pensioners with the towns economic activity geared around care. Young families and young people are forced to leave Peebles for lack of well-paying jobs in the area. Add to this the current cost of living crisis, budgetary cuts to public services by the council, post covid and high youth unemployment we are in a perfect storm mostly of our making. When driving back and forth from Edinburgh to Peebles you can witness a slow-moving queue of vehicles, accidents on a regular basis, speeding and reckless drivers putting other road users at risk and potholes!
Politicians, local council officials and government, point the fingers at each other for the utter chaos playing out in from of our eyes. It seems these institutions will justify their incompetence in whatever way possible in order to undermine public safety. Vested interests have too long been allowed to dictate how policies play out in real terms. An example of greed is when the Scottish government allocates a target for every council in Scotland to build new houses to keep pace with a growing population, bulk of the houses allocated to the Scottish Borders are marked for development in and around Peebles! This of course makes it very attractive for newcomers to move to the area but most of these homes are not affordable for the locals, who have to rely on council/housing associations or private landlords to provide accommodation which is expensive.
We need a complete rethink of how we can improve the local infrastructure for all to benefit not a select few.
Published in The Peeblesshire News on Friday 19th July 2024
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