No one doubts that the charms of East Lothian promote tourism and help our economy.
One of the most attractive routes is the one from Aberlady to Dirleton, with the sweep of the bay, the climb through manicured golf courses to Gullane, opening out to well-tended farmland with the Lammermuirs in the distance and Archerfield woods before Dirleton Castle looms.
So why blight it by erecting a series of advertising banners along the route?
Since January, we’ve had three waves of them – incidentally too poorly designed to be read and a traffic hazard to motorists who slow down in curiosity.
Our weather has treated them with admirable disdain, tearing off anchor points, ripping material and sometimes whipping it away entirely.
Who applied for the necessary planning permission? Who granted it? What other business or organisation would be allowed to advertise in such an environmentally sensitive location?
The supports first appeared last June in preparation for The Open Golf Championship at Muirfield.
Then, there were banners everywhere and other criteria were in operation for boosting the economy, but when the circus left town, so did the banners.
It offends the eye, and common sense, to be driving west from Gullane, the view framed by the Pentlands and Arthur’s Seat and finding advertising banners distracting and intruding. The latest ones have two words printed large enough to be read. They say ‘East Lothian’. Yes – we know where we are and we’d like to protect it.
Beryl Robinson Gullane
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