COUNCILLORS have agreed to proposals which will see more than 800 additional houses built in the Borders in the coming years.

A total of 150 new homes have been identified for three sites in Tweeddale.

And around 300 will be built on land at Lowood, close to Tweedbank rail terminus.

Scottish Borders Council's Local Development Plan for housing was adopted more than a year ago with details of sites identified for housing developments.

But the Scottish Government flagged up a need for many more homes to be built in order to address a housing shortfall.

The initial figure of 916 identified by Holyrood was gradually reduced to 811 during the proceeding months due to current live applications being included.

Following a lengthy consultation exercise a full list of the accepted - and rejected - sites went in front of Scottish Borders Council this week.

As well as 300 houses for Lowood, the former Heather Mills site in Selkirk is included for 75 houses, the Angles Field next to Bannerfield is listed for 30 houses, and 100 houses are proposed for land at Nethershot in Kelso.

The former Kelso High School site is included with an indicative figure of 50 properties, and the former Castle Warehouse site in Galashiels is listed for 30 houses.

The central Borders will cater for a total of 647 of the additional new houses in the Finalised Supplementary Guidance list.

The Northern Borders has only three sites included - 70 houses for the March Street Mills site and 30 properties for Rosetta Road, both in Peebles, and Caelree Mills in Innerleithen to cater for 35 new houses.

Lead planning officer Charles Johnston stated: "In terms of the location of site options to meet the required 811 units, the Reporters did not state where these units should be located within the Scottish Borders.

"It was therefore considered that taking into account matters such as housing land take-up, development interest and population projections the split should roughly be within the identified Local Development Plan Housing Market Areas as follows - Central 60 per cent, Berwickshire 20 per cent and Northern 20 per cent."

A controversial site at Newstead was removed from the list and both Philiphaugh Mill and Philiphaugh Farm in Selkirk were also taken off the proposed sites.

Attempts by developers to include Venlaw Hill in Peebles, land next to Whitehaugh in Peebles, a vast site at Whitehill near Newtown St Boswells and additional land at Robinsland at West Linton were unsuccessful.

The full list of sites included in the Finalised Supplementary Guidance on Housing list are...

Land North of High Street, Ayton (six units) - Hillview North (Phase 1), Coldstream (100 units) - Reston Long Term 2, Reston (38 units) - Lintburn Street, Galashiels (eight units) - Rose Court, Galashiels (12 units) - Former Castle Warehouse Site, Galashiels (30 units) - Leishman Place, Hawick (five units) - Henderson Road, Hawick (six units) - Fairhurst Drive Factory, Hawick (10 units) - Tweed Court, Kelso (15 units) - Nethershot (Phase 2), Kelso (100 units) - Former High School Site, Kelso (50 units) - The Orchard, Newstead (six units) - Angles Field, Selkirk (30 units) - Heather Mill, Selkirk (75 units) - Lowood, Tweedbank (300 units) - Caerlee Mill, Innerleithen (35 units) - Rosetta Road Mixed Use, Peebles (30 units) - March Street Mill, Peebles (70 units).