QUESTIONS have been asked as to why East Lothian Council is spending time drawing up plans for a Dunbar park.

Proposals for a revamp of Winterfield Park, which is home to tennis courts and sports pitches, were formulated last year.

However, public consultation showed little appetite for any changes to be made.

Dunbar Community Council received word on Monday evening that a further consultation was being planned, despite the apparent lack of interest in any alterations.

George Robertson, community councillor and chair of Dunbar and East Linton Area Partnership (DELAP), noted that there was no funding available to make any of the proposals happen.

He said: “It is a wishlist of things – it is not going to be happening any time soon.

“That is the long and the short of it.

“If you are interested in the future of the park obviously come along to the meeting and have your say but do not expect anything to happen any time soon.”

Included among the ideas is the possibility of creating a “pavilion with toilets in the style of the pagoda recently demolished”, as well as a series of paths and information cairns.

Pippa Swan, chairwoman of the community council, was “surprised” to receive an email highlighting an upcoming meeting, which is due to take place on Wednesday, where discussions will take place on the plans for the park.

She pointed to the public consultation which took place last year in the town’s Bleachingfield Centre.

At that time, a display featuring a series of images and information boards highlighted potential changes to the park, including new seating and picnic benches, as well as a maze and parkour course.

Long-term aspirations also included the suggestion of creating a replacement pavilion with access to public toilets.

Winterfield Pagoda, also known as Winterfield Pavilion, which had stood in the park since the 1920s, was torn down by East Lothian Council in March 2017.

“In general, there was no massive enthusiasm for proposed changes, adding paths or parkour, or anything else,” said Mrs Swan.

“I was taken aback that East Lothian Council had seen fit to continue with a masterplan.”

Mrs Swan, who was previously DELAP chairwoman, also noted that budgets were increasingly tight at the local authority and funding would likely have to come from external organisations.

She added: “I still feel immediate priorities should be addressed first and scarce resources addressing immediate wishes of the community as expressed in the first instance.”

A spokeswoman for East Lothian Council said work to develop “a programme of improvements” for the park had been ongoing since 2012.

She said: “From the outset it was made clear that financing any improvements would be challenging but that in itself was not justification for ignoring the need.

“The benefit of having a masterplan in place means that if opportunity presented itself, either by way of outside funding or sources of materials, individual elements of the plan could perhaps be delivered without detriment to the wider plan.

“The council has used this model of planning very successfully on a number of other sites, the most recent being Ormiston Park where significant improvements have been delivered.

“Following the most recent meeting to discuss the draft masterplan, the council was advised by the steering group that, although work was still required on what the plan should contain, the general principles of delivering improvements were still widely supported by the local community.”