Borders housing development's year-long electricity wait is over

Delays to supplying electricity to the site have come in for criticism

A year-long wait to install power into rural family homes in the Scottish Borders has been branded a disgrace.

Scottish Power were sent the application for supplying electricity to the five rentable houses at the start of last November.

The community company behind the development paid the £48,000 connection fee in April.

But the meters at the houses and neighbouring business units were only fitted last week.

The Steading will welcome its first tenants next month

Selkirkshire councillor Elaine Thornton-Nicol has criticised the delays, which she believes have cost Ettrick and Yarrow Community Development Company (EYCDC) vital income.

She said: "The development company paid their fee back in April in expectation that they would be welcoming the first families into the new homes during the summer.

"Here we are in November and it's only now that we are finally getting somewhere.

"These families could have been in their new homes many months ago - it's a disgrace.

"The development company should have been collecting rents for a long time before now, which would help them repay the loans they took."

Councillor Elaine Thornton-Nicol criticised the delay

Work has been ongoing at the £2m Kirkhope Steading, near Selkirk, for almost two years.

As well as creating five new family homes, the project also included the creation of seven business workshops within a former corn mill.

Ms Thornton-Nicol added: "I will be asking Scottish Borders Council to put pressure on these companies as families shouldn't be waiting all these months to move into their new homes."

The delays in welcoming tenants to the houses and units led to EYCDC applying for additional funding to support the project until rents are collected.

The corn mill conversion is part of a project which took £2m to complete

A spokeswoman for EYCDC confirmed that delays by Scottish Power Energy Network led to installation dates being moved from the summer to September and then to November.

She added: "We finally signed contracts with supplier EDF and the meters were installed last Monday and Wednesday.

"It has been a long wait, but we are now at the stage where our first tenants are about to move in."

The development outside Ettrickbridge is seen as a lifeline for the local primary school as well as for creating jobs in the workshops.

The first tenants of the family homes and business units are due to move in during the first week in December.

SP Energy Networks said it was proud to have supported the development of the project by financing the installation of solar panels.

It said it had been working with EYCDC since April to progress connection works which had included obtaining consent from a third party landowner.

It added that cabling had been laid in September but the actual grid connection had been pushed back to October due to bad weather.