Remarks by Calum Miller of Prestonpans Community Council and others regarding the potential loss of “thousands of jobs” due to the scrapping of plans for an energy park at Cockenzie, in the absence of a shred of evidence to support that hypothesis, is reckless grandstanding.

Scrapping the energy park merely brings to a close an ill-considered, wilfully prejudicial project of indeterminate purpose alleged to satisfy needs of an industry blighted by over-supply, and for which there was never a market.

How this could possibly translate into thousands of jobs would defeat Solomon.

As the community vision for the site amply demonstrates, the Coastal Regeneration Alliance (CRA) is very much pro-employment, not against, as some would have you believe. Indeed, I can sympathise with Mr Miller, but only insofar as he, like others, was denied the promised community consultations and, as a result, he is operating in a vacuum.

And while we in the CRA are pleased to be associated with the project being dropped, pray acquit us, Mr Miller, for we will not take responsibility for your malaise; blame for that lies squarely where it belongs.

Indeed, while the paucity of information given by Scottish Enterprise made research difficult, such inquiries as were possible revealed the energy park would actually result in a local employment deficit; a consistent plank of the CRA’s argument, one neither Scottish Enterprise nor East Lothian Council offered to challenge.

If Mr Miller is prone to myth and fantasy as his comment suggests, perhaps his own research should include situations vacant at either of these august bodies where, from their handling of this débâcle, he could doubtless find succour among the handsomely paid.

Whatever Mr Miller’s agenda, I should be astonished if his was the true position of the community council. For notwithstanding their neutral stance, with the unholy alliance between Scottish Enterprise and the council seemingly set to continue, ‘alarm’ is surely indicated.

I cannot speak for Prestonpans Community Council, of course, but the CRA have already marked that particular report card with, on behalf of the wider community, a ‘Must do better’.

However, with this stalking horse finally put out of its misery, its nosebag no longer filled from the public purse, we may now expect to deal only with serious players.

David Ostler Coastal Regeneration Alliance