Councillors booed by protestors as parking plans for four East Lothian towns move forward

Councillors were booed by angry protesters as they arrived for a meeting to approve the next step in introducing parking charges in town centres across East Lothian on Tuesday.

Dozens of objectors gathered outside Haddington Town House, waving placards and shouting at councillors to ‘do the right thing’ as they entered the building, with passing cars and vans honking their horns in support.

Within half an hour of the meeting getting underway in the council chamber, Provost John McMillan called a halt as the noise from protesters threatened at times to drown out the discussions among council officers and elected members.

Councillor McMillan appealed to members of the public who had come into the chamber to ask protesters outside to quieten down and allow them to go through the process of discussing the plans.

However, he then decided to adjourn the meeting for advice.

East Lothian councillors gave officers the go-ahead to move forward with plans to introduce parking charges in four town centres despite public opposition.

Members were asked to give officers the green light to begin the process to introduce Traffic Regulation Orders to support on-street and off-street charges in Dunbar, Haddington, Musselburgh and Tranent.

In the county’s biggest town of Musselburgh, parking charge plans were welcomed by local members, with councillor Andy Forrest saying there was no doubt the town needed action.

He said: “There is no doubt Musselburgh needs parking management. There are no spaces seven days a week in Musselburgh town centre.”

And fellow ward member Scottish Greens councillor Shona McIntosh told the meeting: “The charges we are proposing for Musselburgh are cheaper than taking the bus into town. I do not think it should be cheaper but that is the scale of the charges we are talking about.”

Earlier in the meeting, Councillor McIntosh had said the proposals for all four town centres were never about whether parking charges should be introduced but about how they would be imposed.

She told the meeting: “There was never going to be a referendum about charging for parking; it was about how to introduce parking charges.”

In Haddington, where the meeting took place, concerns had been raised about proposals to provide council workers with free parking permits when the current long stay car parks at the council’s headquarters John Muir House in the town and Tesco begin charging.

Officers insisted the plans were in a ‘very early stage’ and work still had to be done to understand the demand between frontline council staff and the public.

Councillor John McMillan said he had lived in Haddington since the 1980s and was proud to live in the town, but he said the comments from residents and businesses in the town often mentioned a need for more enforcement of parking rules.

He said: “If you want more enforcement, you have to pay for it.”

Earlier council officers had stressed the meeting was being asked to approve the next stage of plans for parking charges in Dunbar, Haddington, Musselburgh and Tranent, and there would still be public consultation opportunities as the process to apply for Traffic Regulation Orders moved forward with reassurances it was not a ‘done deal’.

The SNP group councillors produced amendments for all four proposals, which said more transparency was needed, along with clearer communication with the public moving forward, and listed a number of areas in each town where additional work was needed.

However, a call in the amendment for plans for the towns to be delayed until a review of the impact on North Berwick, where charges have already been approved, was brought back to the council was rejected in each case.

Earlier in the day, councillors voted to approve the next stage of plans for Dunbar to go ahead, and this afternoon, the proposals for Haddington, Musselburgh and Tranent were also approved with near identical votes.