MEMBERS of the public are urged to attend a meeting of the Battle of Prestonpans Heritage Trust next week where trustees will discuss their plans for the bathhouse at Prestongrange Museum.

The trust has also invited Prestonpans community councillors to attend after they raised concerns about the trust’s plans to transform the bathhouse – which decades ago provided miners a place to wash after a shift – into a £5.7 million tourist hub focusing on Bonnie Prince Charlie’s famous victory at Prestonpans in 1745.

The trust also wants the bathhouse site to be home to the Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry.

Last month, Prestonpans Community Council criticised the trust for failing to discuss the proposals with them fully before submitting an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for aid.

It was suggested that the centuries-old battle was given too much prominence in the town and was overshadowing the area’s rich industrial heritage. Calum Miller said: “This is hand-me-down heritage; we have an organisation telling us what our heritage is. Whose heritage is it?”

READ MORE: Battle looms over bid for tourism centre

However, the trust has described the criticism as hurtful, insisting the plans for the bathhouse have been discussed in the community for seven years.

In a statement, it said: “We are certainly not an ‘extra-Pans’ organisation telling Panners what ‘their’ heritage is. Frankly, that hurts; and we’re sure it was uttered in the heat of the moment.

“The trust was established at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg in 2006 and has been the community’s 1745 focus for 10 years, fighting to conserve the battle site, ably assisted by the Coastal Regeneration Alliance.

“We have drawn in thousands of community members to our annual re-enactments and established a re-enactment regiment that is a leader across Scotland.

“We have established and interpreted walkers/cyclists routes, taken the lease at the top of the bing [the former coal bing turned viewpoint at Meadowmill] and at Bankton Doo’cot and restored the latter.

“We have scripted and presented theatre and murals across town and at the Fringe.

“And certainly, not least, we have fathered and toured the Prestonpans Tapestry, with over 400,000 visitors across the nation and in France.”

The trust has submitted its plans to the Heritage Lottery Fund in a bid to secure two-thirds of the costs for the project. Its plans for the site include keeping historic elements of the bathhouse itself to protect its mining history.

The trust did concede it had not discussed the latest proposal for the bathhouse with the community council and apologised to the group, before inviting community councillors – and the general public – to attend its trustees’ meeting in the Prestoungrange Gothenburg pub in the town next Thursday (January 19), from 5pm.

The meeting is open to anyone with an interest in the community’s heritage.