Category: News

Categories
News

Pencaitland traffic nears 4,000 vehicles daily

Residents of Pencaitland may have noticed the recent appearance of a pair of black wires running across the main road in the village near to the entrance to the Carriage House.

ELC carried out a new Traffic Survey in Pencaitland in March.

This was part of a recent road traffic survey being carried out by East Lothian Council over the course of a week in March.

Here are some of the interesting stats to come out of the survey which ran from the 2nd to the 8th.

The average speed of vehicles was 31.1mph which is generally good news. However, this is an average so some would have been travelling faster, whilst others would be slower.

Of course, the location is fairly close to the lights at the bridge which may be an influencing factor in terms of speed measured at this point.

The percentage of heavy goods vehicle traffic remains fairly constant at 11 percent out of a total 5 day average count of all vehicles of 3,900. This counts traffic travelling in both directions and isn’t hugely different from the measured numbers in 2009.

Nevertheless it’s hard to believe the reality of a daily figure just shy of 4,000 vehicles per day travelling through Pencaitland in both directions.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter

Categories
News

Have you considered car-pooling from Pencaitland?

With recent news about the unwelcome closure of vital bus routes to Pencaitland and Ormiston this June, you may be interested to know that there are still ways to get from A to B thanks to car pooling.

Tripshare allows you to car pool with others whilst reducing costs, road traffic and pollution at the same time. Click to find out more.
Tripshare allows you to car pool with others whilst reducing costs, road traffic and pollution at the same time. Click to find out more.
Car pooling is the act of sharing a private car to get to a mutually agreed destination at a prearranged time. In a local context that might be car-sharing from Pencaitland to Tranent or Wallyford in the morning in order to catch public transport into town… and back again at the end of the workday. Alternatively it might be a commute directly to the city.

The advantages of this approach are pretty clear. A car with four seats fully utilised will spread the fuel costs amongst four people. It also means just one round trip compared to four separate cars on the roads, each with just one commuter.

It’s not only a more economical and social practice, it’s also much more environmentally aware, reducing unnecessary road trips and pollution.

You don’t have to own a car to participate. If you do have your own transport then you can arrange to take turns driving, thus using your car perhaps 75% less than before. This reduces wear and tear and, of course, fuel costs.

Interested? Then find out more about East Lothian’s very own TripShareEastLothian service.

As the website explains, “Tripshare has been created so that you may actively search for other members who are doing similar journeys at similar times. Tripshare has the capability of matching all types of journeys. This scheme will not only allow members to share car journeys if you wish, but also to choose to share taxi journeys, and to choose to cycle and walk together.”

The website costs nothing to use and forms part of the UK’s National liftshare network. It is restricted to people aged 18 and over.

PS – Do you already car-pool from Pencaitland or other villages in and around the area? Please tell us about it below and whether it’s been a success for you?

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter

Categories
News Photos

This is snow joke – photo

It’s hard to take in that we’re seeing snow so late on in the year. Puts a real dampener on the plants which were loving the unseasonally warm weather a few weeks ago…

Snow in mid April in Pencaitland!

Click here to see a larger image (and more snow).

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter

Categories
News

RELBUS calls on commuters to contact Council reps

RELBUS, short for Rural East Lothian Bus Users, is calling upon members to make personal representations to their elected representatives.

RELBUS calls for bus users/members to make views known to elected reps

As a recent articles on the RELBUS website explains, “In the light of recent announcements we thought it would be a good idea to set out some of the steps we can all take to ensure the politicians and operators respond appropriately. We are encouraging all RELBUS members to make personal representations to elected members, your local councillors and community councillors. Get support from your MSP to urge Government to step in and support the transition to a new provider, but also to look again at the regulations.”

The story goes on to recommend:

  • The views of bus users are central to constructing a better service, so ask them how they propose to take bus users views into account.
  • It is inevitable that urgency pushes decision makers to replicate the existing setup – perhaps like for like or close to it. However the status quo is inadequate. It can only be a starting point not the end point.
  • There need to be better connections with rail services. One study in Dunbar showed that no passengers used the bus to get to the train station.
  • There need to be better connections between communities and services to ‘destinations’.
  • We need better quality and more reliable commuter services. These are clearly very important, but too often oversubscribed at peak times and over-provided when they demand is lower.
  • Improve the bus fleet. Smaller buses are better suited to small rural towns and connecting services. Greener buses are going to be less noisy and less polluting.
  • A not for profit company should be set up to run the services. The company should seek to provide a comprehensive public service.
  • Profits should be used to help keep the fleet clean and green, lower fares and rationalise them, devote sufficient resources to marketing and publicity and aim to increase patronage of the buses by residents, business, visitors and tourists.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter

Categories
News

Things to do with kids this Easter

Don’t forget Edinburgh’s International Science Festival has loads of activities for kids this Easter. One of the main attractions is the City Arts Centre, entirely given over to interactive activities for children of all ages.

Below you can see just one of the many entertaining activities to engage children’s imaginations.

Also worth checking out is the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street. It has a variety of science activities on offer.

For general information on all events go to the What’s On section of the EISF website. For all the activity based stuff go here.

Edinburgh’s International Science Festival was founded in 1989 and is an educational charity that encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to discover, “the wonder of the world around them”.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter

Categories
News

Pollingtons village visit cancelled

We received last minute word that the Pollingtons fine food and drink van will not make it to Pencaitland today.

Owner Michael asked us to pass on apologies to anyone expecting to use his service today.

Pencaitland Community Council

Categories
News

East Lothian Courier seeks local views on axed bus routes

The East Lothian Courier newspaper is seeking the views of people in villages across the county who will be directly affected by the cuts planned by First bus this June.

Some of the growing list of comments on the East Lothian Courier's Facebook page.

Kirsty Gibbins, the paper’s Editor, wrote on it’s Facebook page, “We’d like to hear comments and views from people in East Lothian affected by the significant cuts to First bus services across the county from June 10. We will be running a selection of quotes from the public in the paper so please send your reaction/letters to kgibbins@eastlothiancourier.com with your name, age and home town/village attached.”

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland community council on Twitter

Categories
News

Evening News features story on axed buses

The Edinburgh Evening News did a follow up piece on axed bus routes in today’s paper which highlights just how much upset it will cause to rural residents of East Lothian.

Bus users face misery as First axes vital services - click to read Evening News' story

However, in a small section marked ‘analysis’, the paper sought the ‘expert’ view of former Lothian buses chief Neil Renilson. He said, “The impact on the majority of passengers will be modest or slight, as most of the services being wound down parallelled Lothian Buses’ services, and I have no doubt that on the routes where First Group are simply copying Lothian’s services, Lothian will provide any extra seats needed.”

This so-called analysis totally omits the fact that Lothian buses do not operate competitive services to Ormiston, Pencaitland and other villages in East Lothian. Any axing of First’s services will leave villagers, without access to private transport, totally cut off.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland community council on Twitter

Categories
News Notices

More snow & freezing a possibility

With snow already falling and the potential for more forecast we thought it would timely to remind the residents of Fa’side about the Community Council’s store of snow shovels.

Nothing is melting as it's just way too cold.

In the event that today’s snow doesn’t melt overnight, you can now borrow a shovel supplied by East Lothian Council to the community by calling 340 641 or 340 115. You do not need to leave a deposit — just your name and a means of contact.

But we do ask that any borrowed equipment is returned once any snow has melted, so it can then be stored for community use in future winters.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland community council on Twitter

Categories
News

First bus slashes services again – route to be axed

If some bus users were under the impression there wasn’t a lot left to cut from the remaining routes operated by First… you’d be wrong! It seems the bus company plans a further round of route cuts in a few months which will lead to further misery for people lacking private transport in rural East Lothian.

First kills bus route covering Pencaitland and Ormiston - click for the Edinburgh Evening News story

Members of the local community have been contacted by the Edinburgh Evening News tonight, seeking their views on an announcement from First that it intends to kill the existing bus route covering Pencaitland and Ormiston.

This development could not happen at a worse time for the current ELC administration as many community members have previously expressed frustration at the lack of action from the controlling SNP/Lib Dem alliance over poor public transport policy and implementation.

Look out for the full story in tomorrow’s paper or read it here.

Pencaitland Community Council
Follow Pencaitland Community Council on Twitter