With regards this letter and others that I have written relating to the future of the Cockenzie area within East Lothian and the proposed energy park, it would seem that one organisation suggested that it was a little lacking in diplomacy in its presentation.

I can only apologise in advance to those who seem to be offended but it seems to me that the word democracy is only used on voting days and the freedom to speak against an injustice is frowned upon and opposed by those who would curtail the rights of freedom to even speak out.

However, perhaps there is a point and it is true to state that those words that were written hold within them the future of the thousands of people’s lives that will live within the shadow of the proposed energy park at Cockenzie.

The 26,000 inhabitants of this area’s future depends on one man’s decision – Mr Fergus Ewing, who holds the ministerial position of Energy Minister within the Scottish Cabinet.

Mr Ewing has a controversial history relating to the gas turbine power plant that was to replace the coal-fired power station built within the 1960s and the controversial building application by ScottishPower, that was approved and supported by the Energy Minster and is now shelved.

This has been witnessed by the thousands of protesters that opposed the building of the replacement power plant and the manner in which the minister overturned and discharged the community’s action group.

Now the communities of East Lothian are progressive thinkers and the new proposed energy park is a sentence that will plummet the communities back to the past that was endured for more than 40 years. The communities have no wish to return to those dark days but no one is listening.

There is a great love of this area within all levels of this society and they strive for a better future where they can hold their heads high and state that they live within East Lothian.

They have witnessed the damage and the disappointment within their lives within those dark days and will not return to the past, which brought as it were tears of shame by the damage created by an industrial energy power plant that was forced upon the communities.

The communities’ greatest problem is that the Scottish Energy Minister appears to be indifferent to the wishes of the people and is pursuing the same line as many who have been given power over the lives of communities. They have a vision that do not include the people of the communities who elected the political party that Mr Ewing represents.

Alan Eeles Prestonpans