A look at the letters from the March 7 edition of the East Lothian Courier

'We need evidence, not fairy tales'

It was quite illuminating to read your report about the council meeting (East Lothian Courier, February 29), where more decisions about future parking arrangements for North Berwick were made.
Councillor Shona McIntosh’s claim that “feelings aren’t facts” and “anecdotes aren’t evidence” were two statements I could not agree more with. And apparently all Labour and SNP councillors present agreed too.
So may I ask where the evidence is that North Berwick has a parking problem outside the festival and main tourist season? One count in August? One council official having to take “one of the last two remaining spaces in the Glebe” on a beautiful winter weekend?
And I am looking forward to seeing the evidence that the new proposed scheme will alleviate the parking problems we experience in the high season when day visitors are streaming in, who want to park for a day’s outing. Any new spaces for them? The only effect may be we get less traffic from fewer visitors, because people stay in Portobello instead. Is that what our councillors want?
And where is the evidence that (according to Shona McIntosh) “people... feel safer” if they have to pay for parking? Are there even anecdotes for that? I can’t think where they’re coming from...
Instead, we have real evidence from Berwick and Ayr that the local councils had to withdraw paid parking because it was killing their local business. And shops in Cardigan saw booming sales after vandals destroyed the ticket machines.
So, dear councillors, do as you preach and provide us with hard evidence instead of anecdotes and fairy tales!
Christiane Maher
Emeritus Professor for Strategic Transport 
Management

Be fair to all


Susan Joan Russell’s letter (‘We understand’, February 29 edition) makes some excellent points about the failure of the Labour-controlled council. The people of North Berwick are not stupid and can clearly interpret the parking plans, which are thankfully being sent back to the drawing board as ill conceived, poorly researched and terribly communicated. 
The lack of honest engagement with key stakeholders has been an example of how not to run a consultation.
As newly appointed convener of the SNP North Berwick branch, I can confirm that we have held many discussions on the topic and the branch welcomes the proposal to ensure any changes are fair and proportionate.
Parking needs to be addressed but must consider the impact on local businesses and people, the summer season, the environment, the age profile of North Berwick, the geography of the town and the cost-of-living crisis. 
All key stakeholder groups should be involved in designing the future parking for the town, as it is clear it can’t be left to the council.
As they look to review parking in all major towns in the county, they must learn the lessons of the poor process used in North Berwick. 
Be honest, collect and share credible data, develop solutions that are fair for all and consider the views of all key stakeholders.
North Berwick has a strong record of objecting to things it doesn’t want, the proposed “car park on the beach” some years ago being one, and the Seabird Centre extension another, as well as the netting at Tesco and the Goldcrest retirement village. The council needs to take the strength of feeling in the town into consideration and listen to its various representative groups for all the contentious issues, not just parking. Failure to do so will, as Susan states, confirm that “this Labour-run council are failing the people of East Lothian”.
John Wellwood
Convener
SNP North Berwick branch
Stop hypocrisy
Councillors of any persuasion challenging another’s support of North Berwick objections to parking charges can also be said to be “playing politics/it’s an election year” themselves.
Stop name calling. Stop the hypocrisy. Stop wasting money and time. Do your job. Listen to the people who will be most affected.
Little wonder people are losing faith in the “voice of the people”, then not bothering to vote.
Wilma Shaw
Forth Street
North Berwick

Scarlet fever
I was interested to read your article about the scarlet fever outbreak at Campie Primary School (East Lothian Courier, February 29).
I would like to point out that Group A Streptococci (GAS), the bacteria causing scarlet fever, in rare cases can enter the bloodstream and cause serious illness. This more severe version is known as invasive Group A Strep (iGAS), which can develop into life-threatening diseases including sepsis, rheumatic fever, pneumonia and meningitis.
Therefore it is of the utmost importance that parents are on the lookout for the symptoms and see a doctor as quickly as possible so that their child can be treated to stop the infection becoming more serious.
Information about the symptoms of scarlet fever and those that may exist with invasive Group A Strep, or about our vital research to develop a vaccine to protect against the disease, can be found on our website, Spencer
DaymanMeningitisResearch.org
Dr Steve Dayman MBE
Founder, Spencer Dayman Meningitis Research

Deliver results 


How do area partnerships (APs) in East Lothian measure their goal to “reduce inequality and target deprivation”? If they’re worth saving, as the chairs of both North Berwick and Dunbar APs declare (‘Our partnerships should be lauded’, letters, February 29) , they ought to be worth monitoring.
In the absence of any published metrics, yearly foodbank parcel distribution in this county serves as a useful proxy on poverty levels.
When APs were formed in 2014, the number of parcels delivered was 1,339; today, it’s an incredible 12,341. Deprivation is rising dramatically in East Lothian, despite effort by the APs.
APs remain open to criticism because the bureaucracy attached to them is disproportionate to their impact. 
Each of the six APs has a full-time connected communities manager and there are two dedicated partnership administrators. Then there is the partnership forum that meets regularly, and on top of that there’s the governance group. Considering salaries/time, APs are costing more to run than the money they distribute. Consequently, our council should either significantly increase the funding or close them.
Light touch alternatives do exist. Community councils operate on a volunteer basis without the need for such expensive administration. They’re more than capable of doing everything an AP can. After all, it’s often the same volunteers being dragged across the two decision-making bodies.
East Lothian Council needs to stop duplicating effort and start delivering results. A genuine redistribution of wealth and power, from its own central bureaucracy back to local communities, is the way forward: invest instead in our democratic community councils.
Calum Miller
Polwarth Terrace
Prestonpans

Waste of cash


The proposed active travel routes through areas of Musselburgh and Inveresk are 5m/16ft wide. That is approximately three-quarters the width of the road at Mall Avenue in front of the Wireworks development!
These routes are proposed to run alongside the River Esk in Musselburgh’s town centre, the Fisherrow Links and across the open fields in Inveresk Village.
These planned routes are through conservation areas and will have a considerable impact on the natural environment due to the tons of asphalt required for construction and the loss of natural habitat.
The most popular cycling in East Lothian passing through Musselburgh is club cycling. 
The proposed paths would not be suitable to accommodate this use due to the shared pedestrian nature of the proposed routes and the nature of the sport.
The proposal to endorse active travel is an attempt to encourage commuters to leave the car and cycle to work. Do the Scottish Government and East Lothian councillors really believe that loads of wide tarmac paths will get commuters out of their cars and onto bicycles?
One minute the Scottish Government and East Lothian Council are warning us all that increased rainfall, flooding and windier weather will be the norm in the future and the next they think that people are going to want to cycle to work through flood, wind and rain just because millions has been made available for tarmac paths. This is hardworking Scottish taxpayers’ cash. 
Our politicians at all levels need to look to what people need and not box-ticking exercises for meeting climate objectives or garnering political support.
What Musselburgh and the nearby villages require is capital expenditure on basic everyday healthcare needs, education and addressing family poverty, not miles of tarmac that has little community benefit and that will require revenue expenditure on maintenance when nature fights back (and it does!).
Thistles, dandelion, plantain and buttercup all have the strength to push their way through tarmac, as do the roots of trees and shrubs. This can be seen on most of the existing tarmac amenity paths in Musselburgh.  
East Lothian Council does not have the funds to maintain these existing core paths, never mind new ones.
Please contact your councillors and MSPs and request a rethink on this ridiculous national scheme: MSP Colin Beattie at Colin.Beattie.msp@parliament.scot, Councillor Forrest at aforrest2@east
lothian.gov.uk and Councillor McIntosh at smcintosh1@eastlothian.gov.uk
Eve Dickinson
Musselburgh

Speaker wrong


Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was wrong to put Labour’s amendment before the SNP’s motion for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Keir Starmer said he did not threaten Mr Hoyle to do so, he “simply urged”  him to have the “broadest possible debate”. It was passed without a vote.
After Tory failure, political pundits are forecasting that Mr Starmer will be our new Prime Minister.
Working-class and socially deprived voters who may be tempted back to Labour must be careful. Mr Starmer is a Blairite who will take the Labour Party even further to the right.
Mr Starmer has, perhaps, sat on the fence too long and has, like Tony Blair, got it wrong on foreign policy, which is one of the reasons George Galloway won the Rochdale by-election. Could it be that voters are beginning to twig Labour is not on their side?
Mr Starmer could lose the votes of Muslims and others who blame New Labour for the wrongful invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly when Mr Starmer has not only opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, but has publicly supported cutting off water and energy to a civilian population, which many believe must go down as a war crime. 
Jack Fraser
Clayknowes Drive
Musselburgh