IT was once ranked amongst some of the country’s most notorious housing schemes in a poverty map of Scotland.

But Langlee has undergone a major transformation in recent years.

As well as reviving its annual Carnival, local residents groups have created three community gardens, planted an orchard, won more than £100,000 in funding for a new play park, and set up the estate’s first community choir.

And now, with more new homes being built at neighbouring Coopersknowe and Melrose Gait ahead of the return of the region’s railway, more groups are taking root.

A new early years learning centre has been established at Langlee Primary School - the first of its kind in the Borders - and offers children and their families a new programme of events, from Me and My Baby Group to a Stay and Play creche.

Langlee ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Parents Mixer Group also meets at the school where it learns about life in Scotland, covering subjects from banking to a healthy diet, as well as organising cooking sessions and trips.

The Boys Brigade is back at St John’s Church, a new Walk It group meets weekly at Langlee Community Centre, next door to the recently launched Galashiels Men’s Shed, and Langlee Residents Association, which has helped spearhead many local initiatives, is about to open a Community House in Beech Avenue to accommodate more groups. It is hoped to use the house as a venue for social clubs, information days, cooking classes and more.

Judith Cleghorn, chair of Langlee Residents Association, said: “Langlee is buzzing. We’ve got the Carnival every year, we’ve got the First World War concert with the Choir on October 25, we’ve got a community house in Beech Avenue which we’re just setting up and that will be opening on October 24.

“It’s going to bring in services that residents usually have to go down the town for. We’re going to have things like medical services and community groups coming and hopefully one day have a credit union where you can get cheap loans. We’ve got the orchard up at the back and, we’ve been speaking to the community centre, we’d like to set up a wild flower field at the back of the orchard next year.

“We’re going to be the first area in Galashiels to set up a resilient community which means that should there be an emergency - a lot of snow, floods, plane crash, or anything - the community is ready to help when the services can’t get to us.” A number of the community groups set up stalls at this year’s Carnival to inform local residents of their plans - and many of them attracted new members.

Reflecting on the day, Judith added: “It’s better than ever, the weather’s great, everybody’s helped enormously and it’s absolutely crowded - it’s wonderful.

“We’re getting known now, we’ve got people here from Hawick, Selkirk, and all over the place, it really is fabulous.

“We’ve got lots of stalls in, we’ve got the amazing Langlee choir singing as usual, and the Irish dancers and groups.” And she added: “We’ve run the cafe ourselves this year for the first time which makes more profit for us so we can put on a really good show again next year.”