WE TAKE a look at the stories making headlines in East Lothian 25, 50 and 100 years ago.

25 years ago

‘SCIENCE park plea to public inquiry’ was a headline in the East Lothian Courier on December 4, 1998.

A plea for more land in North Berwick to be zoned for industrial use – including a science park – has been put to the public inquiry into the Local Plan by community councillors.

Chairman Norman Hall and Councillor David Berry spent three days at the inquiry, conducted for the Scottish Secretary, in Haddington Town House. They will be back in action in January when major house builders put their case for the release of more land in the county.

Reporting back to a council meeting on Tuesday, Mr Berry said planners would not put anything speculative in the Local Plan – the planning blueprint for the future.

“Unless a developer has put in an application there will be nothing in the plan,” he said.

50 years ago

THERE were concerns from residents over plans for a car park in North Berwick, reported the East Lothian Courier on December 7, 1973.

Fears that East Lothian County Council’s proposal to provide a major car park in the centre of North Berwick would create a hazard for children and aggravate traffic congestion were voiced this week.

The claims were made by residents at a two-day public inquiry held in North Berwick to hear objections to the County Council’s plan to improve the town centre.

The proposals involve the provision of an alternative traffic circulation system by the construction of a main westward road on the line of Kirk Ports, crossing Law Road to St. Andrew Street and then by Bank Street to Westgate.

The plan also includes the creation of a car park in the north and south Glebe Fields, and of additional car parking space in the backlands to the south of High Street and Westgate.

Rev. Walter M. Ferrier, minister of St Andrew’s Church, argued that the town’s problem was seasonal and for many months the car parks were emptier rather than full.

100 years ago

AN INTERNATIONAL reader of The Haddingtonshire Courier sent greetings from California, as told in the paper’s December 7, 1923 edition.

The Courier goes to the four corners of the earth, and from time to time we receive interesting letters from East Lothian folks who have made homes for themselves overseas.

This week, from California, we received the following letter: “We received the Courier from a friend for a number of years after we came to California, but time brings changes and we do not get it any more. The other day I found an old one and read it with much interest. So I am sending a post office money order for a year’s subscription.”