Tag: East Lothian

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Floodwaters fill bend into Wester Pencaitland (Video)

Some locals will already be familiar with a bend on the way into Wester Pencaitland that tends to flood badly with heavy rain. This morning was no different, at one point covering three quarters of the road’s width.

The problem stems from the large field to the immediate north. It forms a large catchment for any downpour which then inevitably works it way down to this poorly drained bend at one point on the road.

If you’ve experienced problems with this stretch of road we’d like to know about it. Comment below or email website@pencaitland.org.

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RELBUS proposes bus users charter for East Lothian

RELBUS, short for Rural East Lothian Bus Users, is seeking the views of bus users in developing an East Lothian Bus Passenger Charter. Got ideas on what you’d like to see in it?

RELBUS proposes bus passenger charter - click to give your views

The Bus Passenger Charter would be a list of commitments that each bus operator would attempt to meet. RELBUS are suggesting the commitments would cover at minimum fare structure, timetables and route information, plus related publicity material including information at bus stops and on buses.

But RELBUS suggest it could go beyond the basics to include commitments to accessibility and possibly a set of standards of service such as, for example, punctuality over and above any statutory obligations. Changes to timetables might also involve prior passenger consultation.

As RELBUS’s Philip Immirzi explains, “We aren’t starting from a completely blank sheet, as I found this over at the Bus Users UK website, but what do others think should be in the East Lothian Bus Passenger Charter?”

If you would like to offer your own thoughts, please visit the RELBUS website and leave your comments.

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East Lothian Library Service offers audio downloads

East Lothian Council Library Service has a new audiobook offering for borrowers, providing a range of popular titles which you can listen to whenever and wherever you want.

East Lothian Library is now providing borrowing of audio books.

In order to enjoy the new service you need to create an account on the dedicated audiobook website.

Click on “Create a new account” and type in your East Lothian Council membership number. This can either be the number on your library card beginning with B, or your Smartcard number beginning with 63354.

Choose your favoured operating system (basically it’s either Windows or the Mac) and then fill out the online form with your details, e-mail address and a password of your choosing. In Preferences choose the option not to make the OneClick digital Media Manager your default player. You should then be ready to download.

If you are an Apple user the best method is to click on the Home tab and choose the link that gives you the option to download an App for your Apple device.

Whether you are using a PC or a Apple device, you’ll need to remember the Login details which you have created to download your books, and to look at them under the “My Collections” tab.

If you are a PC user the files come downloaded in a ZIP format. Save it to your PC and then double click the file to unzip it. Your operating system should allow you to do this. Once unzipped you have a bunch of MP3 files.

Arthur C Clarke's 'The Collected Stories' comes in at 200MB zipped.

These are big files so they may take a while to download. Arthur C. Clarke’s ‘The Collected Stories Volume Four’ came in at 200MB zipped and took about 8 minutes to download. However, once completed and unzipped you can either listen to them on your PC/Mac or put them on your favourite audio player or phone to listen to on the move.

It is as easy to manage your files like this as it is to download the “Clipper media player” from the website. The maximum borrowing time seems to be 21 days.

If you have any questions on the new audiobook facilities you can contact the Library Service.

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Summer arts activities in East Lothian

Following on from yesterday’s article about various sports on offer for kids during the summer, we now have details on arts events in the county.

Summer arts activities in East Lothian - click to view brochure

East Lothian Council’s Arts Service has put together a range of activities for kids in age groups 5 to 7, 8 to 12 and 12 to 18 years of age. Activities cover drama, Art Camps, Musicals and Breakdance.

Youth Theatre Summer Schools can be booked via Musselburgh’s Brunton Theatre on 0131 665 2240. All other arts activities are booked through East Lothian Council’s summer activities booking form. Holders of the Leisure Pass Plus card are eligible for lower fees.

For full details of what’s on offer you can view the Summer arts activities in East Lothian brochure [PDF]. It should be pointed out that these are just some of the arts activities this summer, so look out for more details on other courses from East Lothian Council.

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Kids summer activity programme for East Lothian

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Kids summer activity programme for East Lothian

If you are a parent with a child as the summer holidays rapidly approach you may be at a loss over what to do to keep them occupied for the six weeks+ before they return to school.

ELC's enjoyleisure has a programme of activities this summer - click for more details [PDF]

Fortunately East Lothian puts on a range of activities across leisure centres throughout the county. Better still, from the 1st of July to the 11th of August, between 11am and 4.30pm, kids under 16 can go swimming free of charge in any of East Lothian’s public pools. Kids under 8 must be accompanied by an adult.

The Summer Activity Programme is organised in conjunction with East Lothian Council. All activities have to be booked by completing the East Lothian Summer Activities Brochure Booking Form, which then needs to be sent, along with payment to East Lothian Council. Leisure Pass Plus Holders are entitled to a 50% discount on marked prices.

For the full details of what’s on at different East Lothian leisure facilities view the enjoyleisure Summer 2012 Activity Programme [PDF] or visit the website.

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113 bus timetable published but some commuters unhappy

The new East Lothian Bus timetable for the 113 route can now be viewed here [PDF]. However, initial reaction has not all been positive.

Is the new East Lothian Bus 113 Timetable going to work for you? Click to view [PDF]

According to commuters who regularly use the current service, buses used to leave from Pencaitland roughly 20 minutes past the hour and this broadly worked for those that hadn’t already given up on using First Bus or were driving to Tranent to catch a bus in to town.

However, according to the newly published timetable the 113 will leave at erratic times beginning at 6.35am, 7am, 7.25am, then nothing for an hour and twenty minutes when there is an 8.45am bus. It then runs hourly thereafter.

According to some commuters this is not optimal and they would prefer buses that operate at 6.20am, 7.20am and 8.20am from Pencaitland.

If you use the current First bus service, or would like to use the new East Lothian Bus from June and have concerns over the timetable contact customer services.

According to the East Lothian Bus website, “Your first point of contact is our dedicated Customer Services team – give us a call on 0131 554 4494 and select option 2. Most comments and queries can be dealt with immediately over the phone, however occasionally we’ll need to investigate your comment which can take a little longer. Our Customer Services department is open to calls from Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays); 08:30 to 17:00 and all calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes.”

BUS SURVEY: Pencaitland has joined forces with Humbie, East & West Saltoun and Bolton, Gifford and Ormiston Community Councils to find out what you want from the bus service. Register your views online now.

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East Lothian Bus Update: the 113 & 44 routes

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The clash of profit-driven bus routes v local public service

Local man Barry Hutton, recently wrote a comment for ‘Local Transport Today‘ with the title “Bus services can be profitable, or policy tools, but not both”. Given the recent brouhaha on our buses in East Lothian we’re reproducing his piece below.

Detailed analysis of Your report that East Lothian Council is considering setting up an arms-length company to operate bus services to replace those being withdrawn by FirstBus hides fundamental discontinuities between government policy and transport planning practice that are far from being confined to East Lothian. The Scottish Government, in common with the English, has adopted policies on climate change, on reducing CO2, on reducing car traffic and on tackling congestion, policies which rest in large part upon greater use of public transport. Those policies are echoed in the statutory Lothians Structure Plan, in the East Lothian Local Plan and by the South-east Scotland Transport Partnership.

A major issue at the Public Inquiry into the East Lothian Local Plan was a proposal to build upwards of 750 houses on the western flank of Haddington, the administrative centre of East Lothian, about 25km to the east of Edinburgh. This would swell the town’s population of 8,800 by about 25% and generate around an extra 2,000 journey-to-work/school trips per day.

Continue reading “The clash of profit-driven bus routes v local public service”
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East Lothian Bus Update: the 113 & 44 routes

The new 113 timetable is now available on the TraveLine website as timetable BAO113.pdf. It was temporarily down when checked today however.

Lothian Bus has started drip-feeding details of timetables to the Traveline website

It is believed the intention is to work the 113 route with single deckers based out of Marine garage, operated by a Lothian Buses subsidiary, East Lothian Buses.

There is an East Lothian Buses website detailing the timetables and fare structure for the new 113 route which runs to/from Pencaitland to the Western General Hospital starting 11th June. It assumes a travel time of about one hour and 15 minutes from Easter Pencaitland to George St.

There’s a leaflet you can view here [PDF]. Residents beyond Tranent will be charged a day ticket price of £5, with kids at £3. This is £1.50 and £1 more respectively than the equivalent costs to/from Tranent. For an additional 2 miles on the route this does seem disproportionate. On the plus side, East Lothian Buses day tickets are also valid on Lothian Bus routes and services.

The cheapest option is the East Lothian Bus Ridacard. Like the Lothian Bus version, it permits unlimited travel on Lothian Buses and the AIRLINK service. Assuming 261 workdays (Mon – Fri) the daily cost works out at just under £3.22. Full details on Ridacard costs for students and children can be found in the leaflet above.

The new Lothian Buses 44 timetable is also on the TraveLine site and says it serves Pencaitland but the detail so far omits stop locations out to the villages of Ormiston and Pencaitland. We understand that Lothian buses may still make further alterations to the final timetable that comes into force when the company takes over the route from First Bus in June.

As we learn more detail we will share it with you…

BUS SURVEY: Pencaitland has joined forces with Humbie, East & West Saltoun and Bolton, Gifford and Ormiston Community Councils to find out what you want from the bus service. Register your views online now.

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Drama club comes to Pencaitland

Local mum and teacher Natasha Phoenix is planning on bringing drama classes to Pencaitland later this year, aimed at kids from primary 2 to 7.

Natasha, who used to teach primary level children in Edinburgh, plans to start the drama club in the new school year, around September time, based out of Pencaitland’s Bowling Club.

Natasha Phoenix aims to bring a drama club to Pencaitland in the new school year.

As an experienced Primary School Teacher with expertise in the area of Emotional Health and Wellbeing and Expressive Arts, Natasha intends to deliver high-quality activities aimed at improving kid’s confidence, creativity, resilience, memory, goal setting and team work.

As she explains, “After trying to find a club for my own children, I was dismayed to find the extremely high cost coupled with a lack of appropriately qualified and experienced staff, completely put me off. As I have extensive experience in teaching Expressive Arts, Emotional Health and Wellbeing, alongside recent training in children’s Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Co-operative Learning, I decided to start up my own club. It will not just be drama but will also incorporate NLP, emotional literacy games and opportunities for children to learn practical techniques to manage the challenges of childhood such as bullying, fear of failure or just feeling left out.”

Costing £6 per session, kids will be in one of two classes depending on their school year. Provisionally set for a Tuesday, session 1 is aimed at children of Primary 2, 3 and 4 with classes running for one hour between 3.35 and 4.35pm. Session 2 is for older kids in Primary 5, 6 and 7, again for an hour between 4.35 and 5.35pm. A space for parents and early arrivals will be available throughout the sessions.

At this stage Natasha is keen to establish the level of interest. If you would like your child to be on the list please email her at natasha.phoenix@btinternet.com.

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Meeting reveals more details on East Lothian bus routes

A special meeting of the Association of East Lothian Community Councils (AELCC) devoted most of its agenda to discussing recent changes in the provision of public transport.

More details have emerged on what services will actually be in operation from June 2012.

Community Councils from across the county gathered in Haddington to hear from Ian Dalgleish, Manager of Transportation Services, that:

  • The 44B to Pencaitland is to be replaced by a 113 going a revised route Pencaitland – Ormiston – Western General.
  • The flat fare structure will not apply (contrary to what Paul McLennan said at the 2 May Public Meeting in Trevelyan Hall, Pencaitland).
  • The X13 Express service will be discontinued (again contrary to expectations).

Ian Dalgleish is waiting for details of timetables and fares, and these will be issued in a press release as soon as the details are known (He hopes early next week).

For the full report from Pencaitland Community Council’s representatives at the meeting click here [PDF].

Many thanks to Phil Summerfield for putting together the report.

BUS SURVEY: Pencaitland has joined forces with Humbie, East & West Saltoun and Bolton, Gifford and Ormiston Community Councils to find out what you want from the bus service. Register your views online now.

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