A FRESH coat of paint has been added to a trio of tenement buildings on Dunbar High Street.

Volunteers spent nearly a week brightening up the three four-storey buildings on the street’s western side.

Graham Adams, one of the town’s community councillors and chairman of the Christmas lights team, got out his paintbrush alongside fellow volunteer Neil Anderson.

He said: “It makes a huge difference to High Street.”

Work was carried out to the buildings home to the 1650 Coffee Shop, Seams Sew and The Best Turkish Kebab and the properties above.

The project came about through Dunbar and East Linton Area Partnership (DELAP), which provided a grant to pay for the paint and the hire of the cherry picker.

Pippa Swan, DELAP chairwoman and one of the town’s community councillors, told the Courier £3,000 had been put into the project by the area partnership.

She said: “It started off as an area partnership project.

“When we did the public consultation and put together an area plan in 2014, the condition of High Street came top of the concern list. There was a very strong perception that a dreary High Street affected the economy and it has kept coming up as an issue over the last 20 or 30 years.”

Various issues, ranging from health and safety to cost, have stalled any previous attempts to spruce up buildings.

Similarly, the buildings come under multi-occupancy and multiple-tenancy, which has made it difficult to get everybody on board in prior attempts at a facelift.

However, Mrs Swan was pleased to say the buildings were now looking “absolutely incredible” and praised Mr Adams and Mr Anderson for a “remarkable job”.

The scheme could be rolled out across other buildings in the street if further funding can be found.

But it was stressed it was not simply a scheme for people to get their properties decorated.

Mrs Swan said: “High Street is the living room for us all. We could either go on for years saying somebody else should do it or say the space is important to us and we are going to make a contribution.”