West Lothian Council has granted planning approval for a second phase of development at Southdale, subject to conditions, Scottish Housing News has said.

Southdale, which was formerly known as Armadale Station Development, is one of Scotland's largest regeneration projects and is being carried out by lead developer, EWP Investments Ltd (EWP).

The local authority's Development Management Committee has now approved the construction of 384 houses, including 40 for new-build affordable council housing, commercial units and community facilities with associated roads, footpaths, open spaces and civic areas and servicing infrastructure.

Commercial units and community facilities would potentially include:

• A children's nursery adjacent to the new station access road.
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• A neighbourhood shop just off the new roundabout on Station Road.
• An area earmarked for "community" amenity users, such as a dental surgery and possibly a new doctor's surgery to serve the growing population of Armadale. In addition, spaces have been designed to accommodate a number of local businesses who have expressed interest into expanding into the area, such as hairdressers, beauticians and chiropodists.
• A landscaped civic square in the heart of the development, opposite the new primary school.
• Two mixed use buildings incorporating flats and ground floor commercial units set around the ASDA supermarket and civic square.

Approval of the second phase also follows:

• An agreement to sell another housing plot to one of the largest residential developers in Scotland, Taylor Wimpey, for 85 homes.
• The near completion of Arnold Clark's new Citroen Dealership which is due to open in early December.
• Marstons' Inns and Taverns also securing a site and lodging a planning application for their pub restaurant.

Once complete, the initial first stage of Southdale will include 1,000 residential units, 50 hectares of consented commercial/employment land, leisure (hotels/cinema), a local centre of health excellence and retail space, as well as a new two-stream primary school.

(JP/CD)