If you hadn’t read the Courier a few weeks ago on May 22, locals would have thought nothing of the leaflet that dropped through their doors regarding the proposed Cockenzie Energy Park and the public meeting.

Firstly, thanks must go to Scottish Enterprise for having the meeting and no doubt the jobs it would bring are welcomed.

However, this was publicised as a public meeting for an energy park. The leaflet failed to mention what is being proposed.

‘Energy park’ would bring to anyone’s mind something similar to a science park, researching energy technology – far from it. What Scottish Enterprise is proposing is a major industrial site – major being an understatement – with the main proposal being the manufacturing of wind turbines, with the possibility of 24-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation.

Blindwells was originally green field agricultural land, then the opencast came and went. A new town was what we were expecting, yet now Scottish Enterprise are proposing part of it now becomes industrial. Has the usage changed?

Cockenzie and Port Seton is a coastal village with a fishing heritage, along the East Lothian coast. What effect will this have on visitors and new residents to the area?

Some of the proposals include building an enormous pier that would stretch out into the Forth, four times the length of the existing pier (400m-plus) and stretch about the length of the existing power station. What the new pier will do to the tidal flows and the erosion of the coast, which has already suffered considerable erosion, is worrying for the surrounding eco-system, the coast road and houses located on the coast.

East Lorimer Place/Avenue Road would become the main road into the village – cars, buses and lorries passing through this residential street. Never mind if cars use Alder Road, diverting traffic via Fishers Road and Long Craigs.

The staff on hand did a good job on the night, dealing with a lot of questions and answering them all well. One member of the public commented that they should be in politics, given the way they managed to ‘answer’ some of the questions.

What was disappointing was that there were no paper copies of the proposals to take away. Some of the literature was technical, with no plain English examples; we were all supposed to know what Category 5&6 industrial land use was. Some of the staff used some technical abbreviations.

It was interesting to hear one ‘newcomer’ to the area stating that this was “fait accompli” given the Scottish Government’s agenda on green energy and jobs.

Another was: “What compensation would be available to people living next to the industrial site, during construction and operation?” When did Prestonpans, Cockenzie and Port Seton become an industrial manufacturing area?

It will be interesting to hear what local people think of the planned industrial development, both for and against.

Mr Dickson Port Seton