MORE than 200 people packed into a second public meeting concerning controversial plans to build a new children’s home on a playground in a residential estate.

The meeting, at Musselburgh Grammar School last week, brought residents living near the planned home out in force to object to what they described as a “loss of amenity space”.

People living close to the proposed site, at the corner of Lewisvale Park, next to Edenhall Bank, have accused East Lothian Council of trying to force through plans for the children’s home – which would be home to six looked-after children if approved – without proper consultation.

And they voiced anger that they were being accused of waging war against children in care when their protest was against the building itself and not its use.

The meeting, which was organised and hosted by Sharon Saunders, head of children’s wellbeing at East Lothian Council, saw exchanges between Ms Saunders and residents who demanded to know why the home was being built on grassland next to their homes.

It follows a fiery meeting a week earlier which had been attended by more than 250 people.

Louise McIsaacs, whose house overlooks the proposed site, said that at the latest meeting, Ms Saunders seemed “hellbent” on building the home, regardless of the views of people living there.

She said: “The feeling of people at the meeting was that Ms Saunders was hellbent on having the home.

“Every alternative proposed was dismissed, as were people making their objections known.

“Once again, they tried to tell us we were against the children when we are not; we are against having a monstrosity built on our front doorsteps and losing the play area, where our children play safely.

“Ms Saunders describes the building as a large family home. It is more like a Travel Inn.

“We have worked hard to have our homes and are frustrated by the fact the council thinks they can come along and take this away from us.” Residents at the meeting questioned the need to build a £900,000 state-of-the-art home for the youngsters when there are numerous buildings available for sale which could be refurbished for less.

One resident pointed out that a guest house in Musselburgh was on the market and could be converted.

The meeting was also attended by the council’s chief executive Angela Leitch; Iain McFarlane, planning service manager; Mark Nelson, architect; and Douglas Proudfoot, head of development services.

A spokesperson for the council said the meeting, which lasted two hours, had provided a “good forum for calm discussion of a wide range of issues”.

She said: “Ms Saunders said that she hoped that the meeting had afforded everyone the opportunity to better understand the service proposals and planning application in progress and Ms Leitch added that the views shared during the event would enhance the robustness of the consultation process for the planning application.” The planning application is available for comment until Monday.