I was very interested by the letters of David Barrett, Eddie Clark and Adrian A McDowell, published in the East Lothian Courier and all highlighting the need for greater environmental care and consideration.
It seems to me that East Lothian Council is only paying lip service to the nation’s environmental emergency, especially with some of its planned projects threatening woods, hedgerows and grasslands.
The threat of ill-considered development at Herdmanflat appears to be just the tip of the iceberg of council-pushed building projects – projects they are pushing while claiming to be cash strapped, I might add.
Surely the clarion call to the climate emergency has been rung but perhaps it’s not been properly heard by local government. We have sick whales beaching themselves on our beaches, the UN predicts most arable topsoil will be contaminated by 2050 and the UK has already lost 60 per cent of its insect species in just 20 years. As the old Klingon proverb goes, “Only a fool fights in a burning building” but, once this environment is lost, we have nowhere to go.
I do applaud the tree planting that is going on but not all tree saplings survive and even a tree of only 10 years maintains a complex micro-environment around itself upon which other life depends, when its cut down its lost for good. So cutting down trees and planting them again is not a viable solution and I have to ask if any of the big names at local government have seen a building site – there is no surgical precision going on, the whole site is affected and any ecology there is lost, with plants and insects often never properly returning even after a number of years.
So I am pleading with the elected ward councillors, regardless of party, to take the climate emergency seriously and work with all stakeholders and community groups to find viable alternatives that benefit the people and the environment. It shouldn’t be one or the other.
Haddington Central Tenants and Residents Association is taking this seriously because people are concerned and so everyone is invited to our public meeting, which will be held on Monday, May 22, at 7pm. This is at the Nungate & Haddington Community Centre on Kirk Loan so please do come and attend, as we are having East Lothian Council give a presentation and answer your questions about Herdmanflat. If they are going to do this then they have to tell us why and what they are going to do.
We are not against housing or any other building projects but we want them to be properly considered and the right decisions made, and not on some bureaucratic caprice.
I would add that East Lothian Council refused to extend our request for an extension of the consultation period for the Herdmanflat development project, which is very disappointing, as was their lack of response to our written correspondence for which they apologised and they advised they were on holiday. So I think you can see why we need to hold them to account.
Stuart Pe-Win
Chair of Haddington Central TRA
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel