Bosco Santimano returns to give his opinion on what he feels is the hot topic of the day...

Having lived in Peebles for over 20 years it’s 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 Borders, especially Peebles, what with its close proximity to Edinburgh, 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.

It was pretty much known in those days that Peebles was a sleeping suburb of Edinburgh where people went to work outwith 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 town’s 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, post Covid and high youth unemployment, we are in a perfect storm mostly of our making.

Politicians, local council officials and government, point the fingers at each other for the utter chaos playing out in from of our eyes.

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.