New residential care village at Braidwood

Applicants Welcare Homes want to include a care home, day care centre, specialist housing and doctors surgery, as well as renovating Braidwood House to provide community facilities.

Braidwood House, a fine Victorian stone property set in extensive woodlands and parkland, has been unoccupied since late 2011, since a lease to the Forestry Commision, which had its South of Scotland offices there, expired.

In planning documents lodged on behalf of the applicant, it is stated that the grounds have become overgrown in part and show signs of inadequate maintenance over a long period of time.

Near neighbours have already objected to the development, which is partly on greenbelt land.

Braidwood House has been a home for cerebral palsy sufferers run by Capability Scotland and was also briefly home to the controversial Airborne Initiative which specialised in outward-bound style training for young offenders.

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