East Lothian Courier | Opinion | McNeil supported the Tesco application

Friday, 9th January, 2009

Published: Thursday, 13th November, 2008 06:25

McNeil supported the Tesco application

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I found Councillor McNeil’s letter in the Courier interesting.

He said he could not understand why the people of Musselburgh had to wait for Tesco to go through all the planning processes at East Lothian Council before work on the new health centre could commence. He was at the planning committee meeting of December 4 last year, when the Tesco application and associated proposals were decided.

I asked council officials if the proposed scheme could be separated into the four numbered parts (new Tesco, health centre, flats and specialised housing).

The advice given was that if the planning committee did not approve any one part (of the application), the application in its entirety would have to be rejected.

Councillor McNeil supported the application for outline planning permission and, as far as I am aware, raised no concerns at the time about the health centre application being linked with the Tesco application.

The information supplied to all elected members about the planning application stated that NHS Lothian intended to include within the health centre an enormous array of medical services.

There was no mention of any x-ray facility and no cry of indignation from Councillor McNeil that the NHS had “forgotten to include this”.

If Councillor McNeil was so anxious to get local and national elected representatives involved in “his” rally, he maybe should have discussed it with us before we found out about it in the local press.

I was taken to task for not saying anything at the recent meeting and reference was made to me being the council representative on the Community Health Partnership (CHP). I am the East Lothian Council representative on the CHP, not Musselburgh’s representative.

The meeting was supposed to be an opportunity for members of the public to ask questions of the NHS representatives, not a platform for individuals to make political capital out of it.

I have expressed my support to the community council to ensure that Musselburgh gets the best possible facilities in the new health centre. The final decision will be taken by NHS Lothian and I hope that the strength of public feeling and views expressed will be taken into account.

With regard to whatever was promised for the health centre in the last 10 to 15 years, treatment, technology and policy regarding the best way to care for people has advanced, and what was deemed necessary 15 years ago might not be what current NHS practice is.

Councillor John Williamson

Musselburgh West

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