WE TAKE a look at the stories making headlines in East Lothian 25, 50 and 100 years ago.
25 years ago
‘OPEN-cast appeal is bitter blow’, said a headline in the East Lothian Courier of January 19, 2001.
A bitter blow for people in the Tranent area came when it was revealed that the open-cast mining firm I & II Brown had asked the Scottish Executive to overturn East Lothian Council’s decision to refuse them planning permission to extract coal at Harry’s Burn.
An often acrimonious campaign has gone on for some five years over two separate proposals to open-cast the area and the firm had agreed to axe an appeal against the refusal of their first application for a much larger development if a second, smaller operation was given the green light.
The second application was also refused and now it has been revealed that, just three days before Christmas, they lodged a second appeal to the Scottish Executive.
50 years ago
EXPANSION plans for Pencaitland Maltings – the closure of which was announced in November last year – were documented in the East Lothian Courier on January 23, 1976.
The controversy over proposals to extend the Pencaitland Maltings went one stage further on Monday when councillors and officials of East Lothian District Council met the objectors to the £1.25 million scheme and the management on the site.
The visitors were able to see at first-hand the problems of dust, noise and smell which have been at the root of complaints in the past and now constitute grounds for objection by local people.
But the general impression was that most, if not all, of the problems could be overcome.
The site visit followed a meeting of the Planning Committee earlier this month when the firm – Hugh Baird & Son, Maltsters – asked for permission to erect eight storage silos, six germination tanks, increased production facilities and an extension to an existing effluent treatment plant.
The estimated cost of the extensions is £1.25 million with the possibility of considerably more jobs for the area.
100 years ago
A BOOZY bid for a free fish supper landed a miner in trouble, reported The Haddingtonshire Courier on January 22, 1926.
John Luke, miner, 22, Chucker’s Row, Wallyford, appeared before Sheriff Jamieson at Haddington last week, in connection with a Saturday night disturbance in a fish and potato restaurant at Prestonpans.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of having, on 5th December, in a restaurant at 244 High Street, Prestonpans, behaved in a disorderly manner, and committed a breach of the peace.
The Procurator-Fiscal stated that accused went into the shop under the influence of liquor, and demanded a fish supper “on tick”.
He used extremely bad language and the manager asked him to leave.
He refused, with the result that the police were sent for.
The Sheriff fined him £1, with the option of ten days’ imprisonment, allowing him a month in which to pay the fine.
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