THE case for a cruise terminal at Cockenzie could be given a boost after a new committee was established.

Prestonpans Community Council has establised an enterprise sub-committee which has been tasked with determining the feasibility of such a project.

The group is currently researching the proposals, which first surfaced in the 1990s when ScottishPower asked maritime expert Professor Alfred Baird to investigate the possibility of turning the Cockenzie Power Station site into a cruise terminal when the power station closed.

More recently, Cockenzie Development Company Ltd floated its own vision of a cruise terminal at the site with a retail and tourism hub attached.

The sub-committee is researching the case for and against the terminal, with a view that if it finds it is viable it will look at ways of supporting the scheme, The move comes after the community council raised objections to plans by Inch Cape Offshore Limited (ICOL) to site an electrical substation on the former power station site, which would bring in energy from an offshore windfarm.

Community councillors have called for the land, which is owned by ScottishPower, to be used to generate jobs and boost the economy.

The new substation would take up 25 per cent of the land and generate no jobs beyond construction.

Community councillor Calum Miller, who is on the sub-committee, appeals to residents and interested parties, in this week’s letters pages (Pg 22), to look at the cruise terminal option and fight ICOL’s plans.

He said: “Nearly five years has passed since the plug was pulled on the power station and the area hasn’t received a penny in compensation nor a single replacement job. The public deserve better, much better.”