Planners say new village house is too far from bus stop 

A bid to build a new house on the edge of a village has been rejected after planners said it was too far from the nearest bus stop.

The proposals for the two-bedroom home at Howgate, were described by the applicants as ‘modest’ and would have seen it built in disused garden ground connected to an already established house.

However Midlothian Council planners ruled the land was in designated countryside on the outskirts of the conservation village and was not a ‘sustainable location’.

In a developers statement the applicant had said the new property would be 1.2 miles from the nearest bus stop and they would expect to use the council’s subsidised Ring and Go service which provides taxi services for the equivalent of bus fares in rural communities.

But rejecting the proposals planners sa