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HADAS AGM

October 12th 2006

New local housing not fit for purpose

Housing for the new estates in East Lothian is not built to twenty-first century standards. This was the theme taken by Professor Howard Liddell , the fourth Frank Tindall lecturer at the HADAS meeting on 12^th October.

 In a strongly argued case to a capacity audience at the Trinity Centre, Haddington, Howard Liddell compared housing standards in the UK with those in continental western Europe. In western Europe, estate housing is constructed by  builders under very strict quality control for insulation. Moreover, most house components are factory built to extremely high dimensional standards, rather than being fabricated on site. The result is energy-efficiency houses with high insulation and minimal heat loss.

 Howard Liddell also criticized the style of most modern housing as a pastiche of older, traditional styles with designs that lacked originality. He blamed house-builders for slowness in introducing innovative energy-efficient designs by falling back on the excuse that tradition was what the customer wanted. He considered that house buyers needed to be better educated about energy efficiency rather than giving prime importance to issues such as the distance to the nearest school. The design of the new modern house at Seton Mains is apparently disliked by neighbours but has won outstanding commendations by architectural societies nationally.

 At the 11^th HADAS AGM preceding the lecture, the outgoing Vice-Chairman, Bob Heath, described HADAS’s opposition to the proposed 750 new housing development at Letham Mains and the consequent likely traffic problems. A team of 7 is in place to appear at the Local Plan Inquiry in November.

The Frank Tindall Lecturer, Professor Howard Liddell, and the retiring HADAS committee member Mrs Nessie Gell are flanked by retiring Vice-Chairman Bob Heath (left) and new Chairman Neil Fraser (right).

The HADAS Treasurer, Francis White, contrasted a relatively quiet financial year for normal activities with the busy fund-raising activities for the Local Plan Inquiry. Neil Fraser was elected as the new HADAS Chairman and Peter Stephen has joined the existing committee. Flowers were presented to Nessie Gell who is retiring after serving actively on the committee since it was first set up in 1996.