Wednesday April 15th 2026
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
A ten acre site in the heart of Bathgate is to go on the market. But while there’s a desperate need for social housing across the county it’s unlikely that any will be built offering easy access to shops.
The site, a former council depot at Guildiehaugh, could prove too expensive to attract housing developers.
The cleared site is near Bathgate Railway station and Tesco, on the eastern periphery of Bathgate town centre.
Following detailed site investigation and feasibility work, and given the cost of work required to remediate the site given its former use, it is not financially viable to use the site for new social residential development, councillors were told in a report to the Executive.
However, if the land was bought by a private house builder a proportion of the new development would have to be affordable homes as per planning laws.
The existing access to Guildiehaugh sits south of the roundabout of the same name at the eastern end of Bathgate town centre. It lies opposite the Tesco car park on the busy Blackburn road.
The site was previously the council’s former Guildiehaugh Depot and has been cleared for several years after the depot moved to Whitehill Service Station.
Councillors agreed that the site would be disposed of by advertising it for sale on the open market. Any future income from the sale of this land will go to the council’s Housing Revenue Account which would enable the council to fund future council house building and improving existing council homes.
A report to the Executive outlined:
“If suitable offers are received, a report would be submitted to a future meeting of the Council Executive for consideration.
“When any council asset (land or property) is sold due to it being surplus to requirements, all the income received is reinvested as capital (one off spend) investment in council/public services.”
SNP group leader councillor Janet Campbell asked Scott Hughes, the council’s Strategic property asset manager if two former sports grounds on the western fringe of the site were in fact common ground, having belonged to the former Lindsay High school and St Mary’s Academy, Catholic and non denominational high schools buildings demolished in the 1990s.
Mr Hughes said legal checks proved the site was not common good.
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