THIS past week, I had the opportunity to speak in the debate at Parliament regarding Visit Scotland’s theme for 2017: The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology, where I naturally took the opportunity to highlight Musselburgh’s Riding of the Marches.

Last year’s event proved a real boon in bringing tourists and locals alike out into the environs of the Honest Toun. Statistics have shown that tourism contributes greatly to our country’s economy and with the numbers on the rise, 2017 might be our best year yet.

Of course, tourism depends on us having attractive places to visit, and ruinous initiatives like fracking are bound to have a negative effect on the appeal of our country. As you’ll no doubt be aware, the Scottish Government has put in place a moratorium on fracking and unconventional gas while essential background research is conducted.

Last week saw the launch of the public consultation which will give all of us the chance to have our say in this debate. The consultation will run until the end of May, so I hope you will all take the time to engage – this is vitally important for our country. For more information, see the webpage at www.talkingfracking.scot

Another, greatly-reduced, plan for the housing development at Goshen Farm in Musselburgh has been submitted. Although this new plan is said to contain fewer houses than the original plan, it is obvious that the residents of the town are still not satisfied.

I had the opportunity to attend the public consultation in January, and I was surprised to learn that there was not a lot of information being provided. There was no mention of the number of houses that were going to be built, where they would be placed, or the development that is being built across the road.

Since then, more information has come out, but there remains the worry of how the addition of these homes will affect the traffic on the local road. I hope East Lothian’s planning department scrutinises the new plan carefully and takes all constituents’ opinions into account.