Draft Minutes of meeting of Dunpender Community Council
held on Thursday 5th June 2025 at 7.30pm in The Stables

Present: Mrs E Gill, Ms A Pearson, Mrs A Cosgrove, Mr D Wight, Mrs L Shaw-Stewart

In attendance: Ms A Hunter (minutes), Anthony Jeffries, John Kinnaird, Peter Beckman, Adrian Girling, Douglas Hamilton, Chloe Clark

1. Apologies: Mr H Thomas, Mrs J Priest, Mr R Russel, Mr M Askey, Cllr L Jardine

2. The minutes of the meeting held on 1st May were agreed.

3. Police Report/CAPP

There were no incidents of ASB at Linn Rocks last month. Schools break up for summer in 3 weeks and patrols will be carried out when possible. Also, no further incidents at Markle Fisheries. Social media posts highlighted a male approaching properties within the East Linton and Haddington area with money stolen from a vehicle. A male has been arrested and charged for these offences. The community should remain vigilant and report any suspicious behaviour.

In May there were 40 calls to the area. Five crimes were recorded:

• Protecting the most vulnerable (Missing Persons, Elderly, Hate Incidents, Domestic Abuse.)

1 x Miscellaneous

• Reducing Acquisitive Crime (Crimes of Dishonesty)

1 x Theft from MV
2 x Theft of Diesel

• Improving Road Safety

1 x Disqualified Driving

Following the CAPP meeting on 10th of April 2025 the top two priorities set were

1. ASB at Linn Rocks, East Linton

2. Vandalism/Fires at Markle Fisheries

The next CAPP meeting is 6pm on the 12th of June 2025 at Bleachingfields. Mrs Gill will attend and request CCTV be reinstated at the Bridgend bus shelter for the summer.

4. Matters Arising

4.1. The Mart Pop-Up (Adrian Girling - TheSpace)

Mr Girling reported that 300 members are signed up to the Mart Skatepark 70% of whom are under 16. Two of the older girls are training as coaches and providing inspiration to younger members. Funding is being sought to allow free sessions for East Linton residents over the summer. The project will run until mid August but may extend depending on future tenancy for the building.

4.2 The Glebe Project (Douglas Hamilton - Prestonkirk) Chloe Clark presented the vision for development of part of the Glebe into a Community Garden. Dave Crosbie of Tree-ditions has created a design including a meeting shelter, outdoor kitchen, fire pit, raised beds, wildflower area, edible forest and a reflective space with a water feature (based on the Psalm 23 garden at the Chelsea Flower Show). The school is interested in an outdoor learning space as are the beavers, cubs, brownies and guides. Concerns over potential vandalism mean it will be closed at night. Estimated costs are £32,000 plus £2100 for the planning application. Following a successful planning application funding will be sought.
Concerns were raised over the long term sustainability of the site as Community Gardens are not always maintained. The Ridge have been consulted over their success looking after Community Gardens in Dunbar and CAEL have been approached. The grass will continue to be maintained by the Church. Mr Girling highlighted a fund which provides £3000 for start-up projects and Mrs Cosgrove suggested EL Educational Trust.

4.2. Meetings attended

East Lothian Community Rail Partnership (Mrs Cosgrove)
A meeting was held with Scotrail which covered finances and the website.
Dunbar Parking (Mrs Cosgrove) Mr Wight attended an early pre-consultation online meeting which had no detail on the proposals. DELAP have asked their associated groups for their views and have had two responses to date. There was a general feeling that there is no parking problem in Dunbar and concern that ELC have paid consultants a substantial fee for this consultation. Cllr Hampshire addressed Dunbar Community Council and informed them that ELC needed to raise money. Ms Pearson expressed concern that there was no information on the expected income.

East Lammermuir Community Council had a presentation from the energy firms involved in projects around the area. There was no attendance from the companies proposing battery storage sites
Mr Wight met with a Public Health representative from Lothian Health Board who was impressed by how Dunbar catered for the community and those on low incomes through community meals, Sunny Soups, community bakery and availability of local produce in the Crunchy carrot. She was interested in what allows this to happen in Dunbar. Mrs Shaw-Stewart suggested the church is heavily involved as is the school with their inter-generational meals initiative.
th June, thanked DCC for their support and urged everyone to attend.

4.3. Full Fibre Dunpender Area

Mrs Gill asked ELC if they had a list of places within the Dunpender area that did not have full fibre. Their response was that ELC do not hold such information - it is reserved for Scottish Government staff and the owners of the premises. ScotGovís R100 programme is paused and Openreach (BT) are ramping up to deliver the next phase of works - timescales have not yet been confirmed for that. GoFibre has been awarded the UK Gov contract (Gigabit) - ELC are in meetings with them to help scope their works to tackle problems like ours. That work should hopefully be done in the near future. ELC will continue to work on the problem within Dunpender, including Markle, and will do their best to help.

Mrs Shaw-Stewart will write to ELC councillors and meet with Paul McLennan with a view to identifying gaps in full fibre broadband coverage in the Dunpender Area. Known areas with no coverage include Luggate, Sunnyside and Mill Wynd in East Linton.

4.4. Vacancies

No update.

5. Area Partnerships

Mrs Cosgrove reported that a scrutiny meeting was held today to look at the 13 funding applications. Decisions will be made at the next meeting on 23rd June.

6. Finance - update on budget (2025/26 Budget & end year accounts for 2024-25)

Mr Thomas now had full access to the bank accounts. The balance is £681 with £540 committed. Any other payments owed should be passed to him. The grant for this year is £3922 + £649 for admin. Full accounts and budget forecast will be presented to the AGM in September.
Mrs Gill has applied to the Cross Country Rail Fund for £1000 to cover the cost of printing the walks leaflet. The quote is £1470 for 5000 copies. Ms Pearson will ask the leaflet designer to submit her invoice for £250. Ms Pearson reminded the meeting that the defibrillator pads will expire at the end of July. The cost for the two required sets is £210.

7. Planning / Licensing / Consultations

Markle Fisheries holiday let has been approved. The Gala have been granted a licence.

8. East Linton/Preston

8.1. East Linton Roadworks

Concerns were expressed about the upcoming roadworks and the prospect of Lauder Place then being re-surfaced. It was felt that the Roads Department do not take the priorities of the community into account when planning works.
Mrs Gill raised the following points from Markle residents:

• Why are the roadworks taking place when the U159 is not fully open - this could have acted as a diversion for some of the traffic

• Markle residents agreed with ELC proposal to close the level crossing ahead of the new road/ bridge being opened on basis of facilitating quicker opening of new road. However had they known about the High Street works coming at this time they would have opposed the closing of the level crossing back in May.

• ELC do not appear to be joined-up on this or just donít care

• Outlying areas not even notified

• This means diversions to diversions

• There are already issues in the area with deliveries not coming when they are supposed to as companies say they do not know if there is access or not.

• Complete lack of appropriate signage

• The signage for the East Linton works is not going to help this as it does not even mention how people should get to either side of the U159.

Mrs Gill wrote to ELC re the planned High St/ Bridge St TTROs with the comments from residents and asked for their comments for this meeting. There has been no response.

Ms Pearson has been in touch with ELC about the abandoned road signs.

8.2. Information boards Phantassie layby

The boards have been removed. Their replacement will be discussed in September when the budget forecast is available.

9. Tyninghame/Whitekirk

Mr Wight reported that Tyninghame Hall are exploring permissions required for installation of a wood burner. He has also been in touch with Morag Haddow (ELC) about a 20mph limit in the main street and an extension to the 30mph limit on the A198.

10. Traprain/Markle/Whittingehame

10.1. Traprain - Overhailes bus stop

Mrs Cosgrove contacted Calumn Redpath(ELC) and suggested a new stop at the end of the crash barrier. This will be put to the Bus Stop Assessment Group.

10.2. Markle - ongoing works

Mrs Gill reported that, barring any major unforeseen circumstances, Balfour Beatty are still targeting the bridge at Markle being open to traffic by the end of June.
Siemens Mobility (Network Rail Contractors) confirmed works on decommissioning Markle Crossing are going to plan and that major works on site should be all but concluding very soon. The wooden fence on the east of the crossing is fully in place. The vehicle incursion blocks currently in front of the fence will be replaced with reinforced planters - these will probably take around 4 weeks or so to arrive. These will be planted by the contractors and maintained by the community going forward.

11. Projects - Fountain

The work by the blacksmith is complete. Mr Govan needs to replace a bulb.

12. Correspondence

12.01 ELC: TTRO - Road Closure U178
12.02 SPEN: Moving the Grid Forward Campaign 12.03 ELC: Dunbar Parking Management Consultation events
12.04 ELC: TTROs - B1407 Preston Road 12.05 SEPA: EPAS online information session
12.06 ELC: Licensing Board Papers - 22 May 12.07 Scottish Water: Engage: Stakeholder Edition
12.08 ELC: Placemaking Project - Next Phase - Questionnaire 12.09 ELCAN: Vacancies & Post-Solstice Gathering
12.10 SPEN: Upskilling Event on Community Buildings 12.11 ELC: TTRO - Roadworks Langside
12.12 ELC: TTRO - East Linton Gala Day
Mrs Cosgrove will respond to 12.08 by the end of June. She will write to ELC councillors to question why the library maintenance costs are so high and what portion should be attributed to other properties in the building.

13. Any Other Business

Nothing

14. Date of next meeting: Thursday 4th September 2025 at 7.30pm