A FREEDOM of Information reply to me dated June 5 states that payments made by East Lothian Council from 2021 to end of financial year 2025/26 total £1,489,251.91, so you would think that all would be well and that there would be no need for a 4,000-signature petition asking for a complete pause on the parking scheme for our towns.
Some keyboard warriors, and possibly some councillors, think that charges are the issue and say that drivers should just “suck it up and move on”, but the petition relates to much more than parking charges.
Indeed, non-compliance of the council’s own ruling on impact assessment, mismanagement and inefficiency have brought about the present situation and the council petition meeting on June 11 was an exercise in how not to conduct business.
It was an embarrassment and the reported interruption by Mr Davies, indicating his frustration at detail from an officer, seemed to have been edited out when I viewed the webcast.
The petitioner, Dr Lindsey Horner, was on top of her game but our council could only come up with a soporific and robotic talk from a council officer, and an indication that lessons will be learned from North Berwick.
When council solicitor Carlo Grilli was invited to sum up, it was absolutely no surprise before he finished that this petition was going nowhere.
The council is unwilling to accept that some data provided by consultants was inappropriate for rural towns and that its website quote of a net return of £15 million over 10 years is speculative, so the issue will not just disappear.
Helen Fraser
Gateside
Haddington
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