Pencaitland Community reps attended a Winton House workshop looking at how the county should look in the future. The top message was fast rural broadband.
A powerful theme throughout the gathering and echoed by all was that fast, effective and reliable broadband in rural parts of the county is absolutely critical to maintaining a competitive future for the county.
Below we have reproduced the press release that came out of this meeting.
Divided into a number of round-table groups, each highlighted the critical role that fast broadband infrastructure will play in a successful future for rural East Lothian.PRESS RELEASE: Communities, landowners and businesses based in the East Lothian countryside are being encouraged to contribute their views to the new Local Development Plan. To encourage debate and contributions, a ‘Rural Voice’ workshop was jointly organised last week by East Lothian
Council and Chalmers & Co, the Haddington based surveyors and architects.
The Council and Chalmers & Co have a shared interest in ‘shaping the countryside’ in East Lothian to ensure that its communities thrive as a place to work and play.
The forum brought together a wide-ranging rural voice of around 40 landowners, farmers, countryside businesses, community groups and government organisations at Winton House. Facilitated by Nick Wright and Richard Heggie of Urban Animation, they explored what that thriving countryside might look like in 10 to 15 years time, and how changes to planning rules could help that vision become real.
Pencaitland community was recently contacted by an Arthur Greenan of East Linton, raising the issue of public access to rural land, enshrined in the Right to Roam legislation enacted in 2003.
Mr Greenan became aware of public access issues in East Lothian when organising a local event to take horses from his East Linton home down to the coast to Whitekirk. This became a battle to find an unencumbered route, discovering numerous impediments that made it all but impossible to use paths that were meant to be open to public access but were either locked or blocked.
Arthur Greenan argues that Right to Roam legislation, which came into force in 2003, is being ignored in parts of East Lothian. Photo copyright Trevor Coultart @ FlickrAs Arthur Greenan sees it, “John Muir won freedom of access to the countryside for millions of Americans but in his native county of East Lothian thousands of citizens are being denied their rightful access to the countryside.”
Scotland gained what many now refer to as “Right to Roam” legislation with the passing by the Scottish Parliament of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. This gives statutory access rights to most land and inland water in Scotland. The rights under the Act must be exercised responsibly by respecting people’s safety, privacy and livelihoods; and with regard to Scotland’s environment.
However, if Arthur Greenan’s experiences are representative across other parts of the county, it would seem that the theory enshrined in this legislation does not match up with its practical application in East Lothian.
It’s now ten years since the legislation came into force and it’s a little known fact that this law is currently under review, with an opportunity for interested members of the public to have their say. Unfortunately, to date, this does not appear to have been publicised by East Lothian Council.
Mr Greenan, aware that the deadline for comments to the Scottish Government on current Right to Roam legislation is looming (submissions need to be made by the 11th of January 2013), has asked a number of Community Councils to bring this issue to the attention of local residents.
Have your say
The Land Reform Review Group was set up by the Scottish Government in July 2012 to look at a range of land issues, including the effectiveness of Right To Roam. If you have a view you can submit it via email to landreformreview@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to the following address no later than the 11th of January.
Dave Thomson
Land Reform Review Secretariat
B1 Spur
Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
Edinburgh
EH11 3XD
Q. Have you experienced problems with access to or through the countryside in and around Pencaitland? If you have please share your experiences with a comment below.
Yesterday evening the Community Council met in Trevelyan Hall and received a report of recent crimes of opportunity from local policeman Scott Robertson.
Homeowners can take simple measures to prevent making a crime of opportunity possible.Pencaitland is fortunate in having generally enjoyed extremely low crime rates. However, PC Robertson reported that there had been a recent spate of crimes of opportunity taking place, made possible in most instances by home owners not taking some simple precautions.
With recent incidents in mind, PC Robertson is advising people to ensure that they not only lock their front doors but ensure they also lock any rear doors into their homes. This should also extend to garages, sheds and parked cars.
Your Local Community Police Team
The current community police officers covering the Fa’side ward are based out of Tranent police station. Click the image or here for more information on community policing.
The last few days of freezing temperatures have taken their toll on the main roads through Pencaitland with tarmac breaking to form fresh potholes.
A section of pavement in the centre of Pencaitland broken up by heavy vehicles parking wheels over edge. A child tripped over the rubble caused by this damage.On both sides of the Tyne Bridge there are rapidly growing potholes which could damage a vehicle or, as happens in wet weather, splash pedestrians, particularly whilst they walk on the narrow section of pavement.
The good news is that in this digital age it really couldn’t be easier to report problems to the Council, both directly or via other means. Here’s one method…
Fixmystreet.com is a fantastic concept from the mySociety team, which in turn is a charitable initiative from the UK Citizens Online Democracy. All you need to do in order to report a local issue is enter your postcode, supply (optional) contact details, upload a picture (it’s better if you have one). Then just hit the send button.
You then receive a confirmation email with a link from FixMyStreet. Click the link to confirm and you’re done. Your local council, in this case East Lothian, will been alerted courtesy of Fixmystreet.com.
Contact the Council
Alternatively, you can go directly to East Lothian Council with reports of road problems by filling in an online form. You can choose to register or submit problems anonymously.
It then asks for the street and town plus details of the fault. There doesn’t seem to be a way to send in a picture with the submission unfortunately. Once submitted you are given a reference number for follow up and you receive an email confirming the submission has been received.
If it’s an emergency or particularly urgent you can call:
01875 824305 during office hours (Monday-Thursday 8am-5pm or Friday 8am-4pm)
Pencaitland resident and Councillor Shamin Akhtar says that the closure of Haddington Sheriff Court could impact on some of our most vulnerable children and families.
Councillor Shamin Akhtar, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Children’s Wellbeing and Education, has voiced concerns about the proposed closure of Haddington Sheriff Court. Below we have reproduced her views.
Shamin Akhtar fears that any closure of Haddington Sherrif Court could have far reaching implications for residents of East LothianShamin Akhtar writes:
I think there is real value in having a local court, sensitive to local issues and local history, where a Sheriff and lawyers acting for clients are aware of local circumstances, local conditions, local families and local concerns. This is particularly important for child welfare cases, including the granting of Child Protection Orders and also adoption and permanency cases.
I am very concerned that the closure of Haddington Sheriff Court will lead to delays in adoption and permanency cases being heard because we understand that Edinburgh Sheriff Court already has problems in meeting the timescales required in the cases that it deals with for Edinburgh. ‘The local knowledge of the officials at Haddington Sheriff Court contributes to decisions about crucial child protection issues being made promptly and effectively. I feel that the removal of these cases to Edinburgh will result in delays and additional anguish for the children and families involved.
In practical terms, it will be much more expensive for clients and staff attending court in terms of additional travel expenses, parking fees and, most critically, the loss of work time. A two-to-three hour attendance at court in Haddington could now take up the best part of a working day, if you factor in travelling and waiting time. This will have an impact on family budgets. It will also mean that social workers and other council staff will be away at court in Edinburgh when they would normally be working with other clients. It will have a knock-on effect for lots of people, especially when you consider that the Council is a really heavy user of Haddington Sheriff Court’s services – staff are in court almost every day.
The proposal to relocate the court service to Edinburgh comes at a time when East Lothian is set to have the biggest population increase of any local authority in Scotland over the next 25 years – including a 41% increase in the number of young people aged between 0 and 15 years. Our client group is growing and we need our Sheriff Court in Haddington more than ever. I really hope that this proposal is overturned because I know that moving the court to Edinburgh will have a detrimental effect on vulnerable children and young people and will worsen the service that they that they receive.
I would encourage people to voice their concerns by supporting the Courier’s campaign. Visit www.savehsc.co.uk, emailing courtstructures@scotcourts.gov.uk or sign the local petitions and postcards before the 21st.
After the recent public consultation held in Trevelyan Hall, ELC’s Transport department has returned a recommendation to Cabinet that the plan proceed with one change – no additional car parking spaces will be added to the school.
Following a recent public consultation ELC’s Transport department is recommending the footpath plan proceed minus the additional (in pink) car parking spaces at the school.The proposals included the addition of car parking spaces in the school grounds. A number of Glebe residents, who live around the school’s entrance, were supportive of the parallel footpath but stated they felt they had to object to those current proposals as they did not wish to see further car parking spaces added to the school as part of pedestrian safety improvements.
The original intent was that these further spaces would provide additional car parking in the heart of the village which, courtesy of a new disabled access footpath between the Church, Carriage House and school, would mean that cars could utilise these facilities on evenings and weekends where required. The view was that this would alleviate parking issues on both the main road outside the church and remove the need for cars to potentially park in the Glebe.
Now, with Transport recommending the footpath proceed without the additional parking facilities for the community, it is hoped that Glebe residents’ concerns will be addressed.
The public consultation consisted of an event held in the Trevelyan Hall plus both a paper and online survey. After removing any duplicate responses the results of that process were as follows:
From the public consultation comment book:
44 For the parallel footpath
24 Against the parallel footpath
12 Not stating a position
The online element was more emphatic:
61 For the parallel footpath
There was also a door to door survey:
31 for the parallel footpath Plan
In addition the Community Council received one email for the footpath plan to be completed and one against.
In summary, this meant that there were 137 in total for the parallel footpath, 25 against and 12 where a view on the footpath being completed wasn’t expressed.
Next Steps
The parallel footpath proposals are already widely supported by a number of community groups, many of whom contributed to these proposals after plans to move the lights and widen the main road pavement were rejected by the ELC.
Now that ELC’s Transport department has submitted its recommendation to cabinet, it will be debated on the 11th of December. If the recommendations of ELC’s Transport department are accepted by Cabinet it will then go before a future Planning Committee meeting for a final decision.
Interested parties received a letter today informing them of the Planning Committee’s decision to go ahead with the revised plan for a parallel footpath through the middle of the village, thus avoiding the narrow pavement. However, it remains unclear as to when this work will actually be completed and the alternate path usable by members of the community.
Fatherson play The Front Room in Haddington this Friday. The gig is the last in a series of live, acoustic music evenings held at the John Gray Centre in association with Lamp House Music.
Fatherson round off the Front Room series of gigs this coming Friday. Click above to check them out on Facebook.Fatherson are a three piece band from Kilmarnock. Currently based in Glasgow they have been making waves in Scottish music with a string of support shows and tours with bands such as Idlewild, Panic! at the Disco, Feeder and Twin Atlantic. This summer also saw the band play festivals such as T in the Park and Wickerman. The Front Room will be a chance to see the band perform an acoustic set in a more intimate venue.
The group won a Scottish Alternative Music Award for Best Rock/Alternative Band back in March and are now playing to sell-out audiences, including Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, Glasgow’s Garage and the Arches. They have a new single and debut album planned for spring 2013. you can listen and see them in action on the band’s YouTube channel.
Support comes from a local act, still to be confirmed, and the ‘Victorian Trout Conspiracy’… another band enjoying a faithful and increasingly large following. Usually a twelve-piece, this East Lothian-based ska band will perform with a smaller group to accommodate the venue.
The Front Room is a collaboration between the Council’s John Gray Centre and Lamp House Music. All bands play their own, original music.
Martin Simpson from Lamp House Music said: “Even before they went on sale, we had lots of enquiries about these tickets. Fatherson have a massive following. Lately they’ve been playing on a much larger scale – enormous tents and festivals – so it’ll be a real treat to see them play an acoustic set in such an intimate setting! The Front Room as a whole has been a great success and it’s fitting for Fatherson to provide the finale. It’s going to be a top night!”
Tickets are £8 from the John Gray Centre (01620 820 680) or Lamp House Music (01620 825 630) and on the door, subject to availability. The bar opens at 7pm, with the first band on stage at 7.30pm
If the recent Hooked on Books Week wasn’t enough, local libraries are joining in Book Week Scotland, starting today. It’s the first national week celebrating books and reading.
Book Week Scotland runs from 26 Nov to 2 Dec with free events in many East Lothian libraries.Book Week Scotland runs from the 26th of November to the 2nd December providing a schedule of free events aimed at getting as many as possible to participate in reading for fun, regardless of a person’s reading skills.
As part of the week East Lothian libraries are hosting a range of events including author visits, teenage book groups, creative writing discussions, songs, poetry, arts and crafts, as well as kid’s and family events.
The ‘Reading hour’, taking place at 11am on 30 November, will be held across Scotland as a focus for Book Week Scotland. Library visitors can pick up a free book ‘My Favourite Places’ which is the result of a collaboration between BBC Scotland and the Scottish Book Trust. Together they invited everyone to think about their favourite place in Scotland, consider what makes it special and to then write a story, poem, song lyric, letter or sketch about it. The winning entries are featured in the book.
All East Lothian libraries, except Ormiston and Wallyford, will be taking part in the Reading Hour. There will be reading champions in each library to try and make sure everyone goes away with something they’d like to read; mystery books; poetry readings and much more.
So choose a library and join in the fun!
On Saturday, 1 December there will be a Readers’ Day in the John Gray Centre, Haddington. Alistair Moffat, director of Lennoxlove and Borders book festivals, will be discussing a project he’s been working on – Scotland’s Ancestral DNA. Marie Macpherson’s debut novel ‘First blast of the trumpet’ explores the early life of John Knox and features many places around East Lothian. Peter Kerr’s ‘Song of the Eight Winds’ is a tale of 13th century Mallorca.
There will also be a literary ‘pub quiz’, book swap, tour of the museum and musical entertainment. This is a ticketed event of £7.50 plus refreshments and a buffet. Full details of the complete programme and how to book where appropriate is on ELC’s website.
About Book Week Scotland
Book Week Scotland is being delivered on behalf of Creative Scotland by Scottish Book Trust, the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland. It develops innovative projects to encourage adults and children to read and write; funds a variety of literature events and promotes Scottish writing to millions of people worldwide.
We’ve received notice of a new flood alert from Scotish Environment Protection Agency covering East Lothian.
A new flood alert for the Lothians was issued“A spell of wet and windy weather is expected throughout the region on Thursday. There is a risk of surface water flooding in built up areas and on the road network. There is also a risk of flooding from rivers and small watercourses. SEPA will continue to monitor the situation and further updates will be issued as necessary. The worst of the rain is expected to clear by Thursday evening.”
Keep your community informed
If you have to travel and spot a dangerous section of road please tweet details to @pencaitlandcc or to the Pencaitland Facebook page. This way the information will automatically be passed on to others.
Example Twitter message:
@pencaitlandcc Bend of A6093 coming into Wester #Pencaitland water over both lanes on final bend. #flood #eastlothian
You can use the same text whether sending to Twitter or posting to Facebook or Google+… whichever you prefer.
the # symbol is often placed in front of keywords on Twitter in order to help people discover relevant updates. If you have room, by adding #eastlothian and #flood to your message it is more likely to be found by those looking for information on areas under water around in the county. Try to be specific, using, for example, #ormiston or #pencaitland hash tags to help geographically pinpoint where the problem is.
Co-operative company Lothian Broadband is on a mission to discover just how poorly served the rural communities of East Lothian are with internet access over phone lines.
Despite all the constant press advertising for super-fast services the reality is that for rural communities and villages such as Pencaitland, the chances of getting it are almost non-existent.
Now Lothian Broadband, which started many years ago, providing wireless internet initially to Garvald & Morham, is aiming to ramp up its super-fast wireless web solution for other communities that have thus far been left in the slow lane of the so-called information super-highway.
How you can help
To help the team at Lothian Broadband understand where the not-spots are around East Lothian point your web browser at http://speedtest.net, run the test (it’s free) and then, once you see the results please then share them by posting the provided link either to Twitter @lothianbb or to the Facebook page for the co-operative company.
And if you can, please also give your postcode. Here’s what a typical result from Speedtest looks like.
What a speedtest result looks like: In this case it shows very poor performance for a broadband user living in Pencaitland. Click the image above to see how your broadband performs.
Here are a few video examples from the last couple of days. The first was taken from a house just next to the Mercat Cross in Wester Pencaitland which is fairly close to the local phone exchange at the other end of the village.
By contrast, here’s David Walls’ test which is many miles from any phone exchanges, enjoying far better broadband than about 95% of the rest of the UK population (and all of Pencaitland by a huge margin).
Like so many digital services we have increasingly come to rely on, many require a minimum upload or download speed to operate reliably. Ten years ago there was no option to have Skype video calls with family in some far flung part of the world. Equally there was no BBC iPlayer catch-up service nor emerging digital video rental services like NetFlix which let you watch movies for a modest monthly charge.
Today, as more people spend some of their working week in a home office, it’s less of a luxury and much more a vital necessity.
The problem is, for rural communities in East Lothian these services are out of reach to most as the basic infrastructure we have today simply can’t cope. There’s no prospect of services like BT’s Infinity here; without the actions being taken by Lothian Broadband, and others like it across the UK, we will be waiting for an infinity to see any significant improvements.
And for those who live far from an exchange, even when these improvements do eventually arrive they are unlikely to make much difference for those living 5+ miles away.
Broadband Survey – Pencaitland/New Winton/Glenkinchie Area
Because of the variable speed and quality of broadband available in and around the village of Pencaitland and other outlying communities, Pencaitland Community Council has been looking into alternatives to the conventional Internet Service Providers who supply internet services through your telephone line connecting to the local Pencaitland BT exchange.
One alternative would be a wireless high speed system, giving coverage to homes and businesses in the area via a small external wireless receiver/transmitter on your house or office which can attach to your existing TV aerial.
