Here are this week's East Lothian Courier letters.

I would like to correct some of the misconceptions regarding the proposed extension of Aubigny Sports Centre, Haddington.
To clarify, this extension is not being achieved at the expense of the Loch Centre in Tranent or any other project; these planned works are being funded by Section 75 contributions secured by East Lothian Council.
These Section 75 payments are paid by housebuilders in an effort to offset the impact and demands of housing within Haddington on the public infrastructure, and provide new or enhanced public amenities and services (not general repairs).
In this case, contributions were ringfenced for the purpose of enhancing community sporting provision within the Haddington area.
The expansion of the Aubigny Sports Centre is to be welcomed and will allow enjoyleisure, which is a charity, to further develop services in Haddington, including extremely affordable membership schemes.
This in turn increases income for further investment in community health and physical activity offerings.
In terms of the Loch Centre in Tranent, enjoyleisure and East Lothian Council are dedicated to finding a solution to the significant funding needed to secure this facility for the long term and not just offer a short-term outcome.
The objective for all relevant parties, including local elected members, is to extend the lifetime of the centre and, whilst this remains challenging, our commitment to that remains unwavering.
Like all enjoyleisure-managed facilities, the Loch Centre is an integral part of the town and surrounding villages and is regarded as the main sporting and leisure hub for Fa’side communities.
We also know the general public value the significant role it plays in supporting many non-sporting community activities.
Civic-managed facilities are vital in helping people to be active, and play a major role in delivering health, well-being and community benefits.
Having announced the expansion of Aubigny, please be assured our focus is to retain the same provision within Tranent and secure the Loch Centre as a fit-for-purpose and affordable mix of community use, swimming, sports hall, gym, health, well-being facilities that is open to all members of the community and remains at the heart of Tranent/Fa’side.
I would also like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you – like many, enjoyleisure as a not-for-profit charity has experienced difficulties due to lockdown and post-Covid aftermaths.
However, we could not survive without the backing of our customers.
Everyone at enjoyleisure cannot thank all our communities enough for their ongoing support, patience and understanding during tough times.
With your enduring help and patronage we will carry on offering an affordable and safe haven for the continuous provision of (very) local healthy living opportunities for many years to come.
Bill Axon
Chief executive
enjoyleisure

 

Tackle this
The October storms have brought huge amounts of fishing equipment to the beaches of East Lothian. 
The fishing gear becomes tangled into a large mass that is impossible to move by hand. 
A number of local landowners have given up their time to remove most of this with specialist equipment and are now storing this on their private land awaiting pick-up. 
The hard-stretched council Countryside Ranger service has said it will organise a pick-up of the waste gear. 
However, there is no legal requirement for the fishing gear to be tagged and no limit to the number of creels that fisherman can have – it’s unregulated. 
Harbourmasters at Dunbar and Port Seton have been contacted and they have said they will only collect intact gear, which isn’t helpful. 
See this picture – this is one beach and there are many more like it in East Lothian.
Whilst I understand the fishermen have had some financial hardship in lost equipment, it should not be up to private individuals and the public purse to dispose of their industrial waste. 
East Lothian has world-class beaches attracting tourists but also being enjoyed by local people; these should be protected. I propose that gear should be tagged in future and fishermen be responsible for cleaning up their own waste. This is fly-tipping on an industrial scale.
Alex Morton 
Whitekirk


Stop the abuse
Many people who own electric scooters think they own the footpaths when they use them. 
 Everyone has to get out of the way in the face of the speed some of these electric scooters go.
But I have a problem. I myself have a disabled buggy. 
It is legal. It is registered not only for the footpath but also on the road. It is insured as well.
My disabled buggy has two speeds: 4mph on footpaths and 8mph on the road. But on the road, doing 8mph doesn’t oblige many drivers.
There are many times I have had to go on the roads because of broken glass or repairs on footpaths that East Lothian Council won’t do. But, on doing this, 8mph doesn’t suit many drivers.
There have been a few times I have had a few unprintable words shouted at me, not to mention car horns blasted at me.
There is a speed limit on many roads of 20mph but many of these vehicles do a lot more than that.
The UK is the only country that has a speed limit of 8mph for disabled buggies – for others it is 15mph. If the UK is opening itself up to helping disabled people, why doesn’t this government raise the speed limit for the disabled buggy to 15mph?
Using a buggy that has a speed limiter fitted to do 8mph doesn’t oblige car drivers.
I can speak for many disabled people in saying that this is unfair.
But we have to take the aubuse and cheek from many drivers. 
Not to mention glass on footpaths, dog poo, potholes, smashed kerbs and unwanted repairs.
Electric scooters break the law and get away with it.
Yet a disabled buggy driver  gets nothing but abuse when abiding by the law.
James Whyte 
Musselburgh


Not digging it
As a long-suffering resident of Longniddry, I have endured East Lothian Council for many years. Recently, however, the ineptitude has reached a new level.
Every pavement in the village is being dug up for the third time in a year – first it was new electricity cabling and now we’re on the second round of fibre broadband installation. 
The noise, mess and inconvenience is enormous, not to mention the waste of money – why could Lothian Broadband and Virgin Media not put their wires in at the same time? 
Last week I spoke to a very happy contractor who was filling in the same hole for the third time – who can blame him?
Main Street is now just one big traffic jam. 
The new traffic lights at Coal Road are very poorly sequenced and have left Longniddry suffocating under a permanent fug of exhaust fumes. 
I can hardly breathe sitting in my garden, and the noise from the car stereos waiting at the lights keeps me up at night… not to mention the continual dangerous and illegal parking outside both the Co-op and The Filling Station café, where my children have to take their lives in their hands to cross the road. 
Despite years of pleas to the council’s roads department, absolutely nothing has been done about the situation.
One of the council’s latest brilliant ideas has been to permit the doubling of the number of houses in the village (and in Aberlady and Gullane, and build a new town at Blindwells) and then shut the dump at Macmerry… you couldn’t make it up. 
Clearly we need some more fly-tipping locally. 
How can they keep making such terrible decisions at our expense? 
Stuart Kelly
Old School Lane
Longniddry

A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said in response: “Many of the works have been carried out by utility companies who are ‘statutory undertakers’ with a legal right to use assets (footways) to provide services. They do not require roads authority permission. 
“However, they are required to notify the council of proposed works. We appreciate works can cause inconvenience but when completed they enhance local infrastructure/services. 
“We work proactively with utility companies to co-ordinate/minimise inconvenience as far as possible. We promote collaboration between companies and co-ordination of works at the same time/utilising same apparatus but this isn’t always feasible. 
“One of the reasons for the new signals/pavement at the ‘Coal Road’ junction was to support road and pedestrian safety. 
“Parking restrictions in various locations have been introduced over the years for safety/to keep traffic flowing. 
“In relation to new homes, the council has been playing its part in achieving national government objectives including managing the requirement of over 10,000 new houses across the county. 
“This includes the development of new infrastructure, but resources are not currently sufficient to cover all costs resulting in the largest funding gap this council has ever seen. 
“Macmerry Recycling Centre is temporarily closed in accordance with a current recruitment freeze in response to financial challenges. Other recycling centres (Kinwegar near Wallyford being the closest to Longniddry) remain open.”


Grass deserts
East Lothian Council’s planning application for new pitches at North Berwick High School (narrowly voted through by one vote at a council meeting and now resting with Scottish Ministers) shoehorns four pitches into less area than the statutory regulations stipulate. 
A minimum 4ha for playing fields is required. The proposed pitches occupy just over 3ha. 
The regulations were inaccurately quoted by East Lothian Council officers at the planning committee meeting as “area for external space” rather than “area for playing fields”. 
A patchwork of random bits of grass does not constitute proper pitches.
The Local Plan designates farmland adjacent to the school for “educational use” but only half has been leased (for a peppercorn rent) from North Berwick Trust. 
Why is the entire strip of farmland not used when it is clearly needed to provide proper-sized pitches? 
This designation for educational use should not be subverted by North Berwick Trust or East Lothian Council or councillors for some other use when the land is required for school sports facilities. 
Since the new nursery was built on the old school rugby pitch, the awkward shape of the remaining land means more space is needed for properly sized pitches. 
Sportscotland guidance is that the school should also have two sports halls – it has none.
Councillor Norman Hampshire laid bare a contradiction between East Lothian Council policies to protect biodiversity and East Lothian Council’s resolve to remove a 200-year-old hedge and trees at NBHS, when they have an alternative playing field design that retains the hedge. 
Councillor Hampshire explained to the planning committee that “councillors must often make difficult decisions to balance the needs of housing against biodiversity”. 
But enhancing biodiversity means retaining, improving and extending – not replacing with planting that takes decades to provide equivalent biodiversity. 
Keep the hedgerow. Better still, use the entire strip of land to provide properly sized pitches and expand biodiversity.
Don’t shortchange children on sports facilities. Do create playing fields for the 21st century, that embrace biodiversity and include hedges and trees which provide shelter, shade, drainage and a space for children to connect with nature and benefit their mental health. 
It’s time to change direction on old-fashioned, grass desert playing fields and teach children by example that biodiversity is important and we value it by protecting and enhancing what we have. 
If that land slips out of educational use, it is gone forever.
Alison Clark
St Baldred’s Road
North Berwick