All-party representation must condemn government’s Cockenzie ‘power grab’

In the first week of march it was announced that East Lothian Council had purchased the site of the former cock enzie power Station.

At the time the local SNP councillor, Neil Gilbert, said: “This is good news, not just for my ward but for all of East Lothian. It has presented the county with a fantastic opportunity for economic development and job creation, an opportunity that will probably never be repeated.” He went on to say: “We must, though, proceed in a way that fully engages with the local community in agreeing the way forward. It is important that all parties involved in the development of the site take the time necessary to ensure that we get the best possible outcome.”

Then the SNP Government announced that they alone will determine the future of the site, with the proposed plan, submitted by their new best friends in China, bringing absolutely no jobs whatsoever to the local area.

This industrial site has the potential to create massive opportunities for our local communities, both for workers who are already skilled but have to travel far afield to earn a wage, but also, more importantly, for our youngsters. There are many youngsters in high schools across East Lothian who don’t want to have to jump on a bus or a train (assuming it stops!) to travel into Edinburgh to work. The SNP Government have just taken away the opportunity for training and skilled jobs in their own community. An opportunity, as Neil Gilbert points out, that “will probably never be repeated”.

What the SNP Government are proposing is totally outrageous. In recent weeks they have quite correctly been berating the government in Westminster over the “power grab” that they are planning concerning Brexit. Yet this is exactly what they are doing to East Lothian. Not only that but “the decision by ministers will be final and cannot be overturned”. Could they be any more arrogant or hypocritical?

We need every single locally elected councillor, of all political parties, to keep speaking up for their local communities, and not be silenced by their masters at Holyrood.

I would like to think that at the earliest opportunity an all-party representation will be made to the Scottish Government condemning this decision. COLIN YORKSTON

Chair, East Lothian Constituency Labour Party Cameron Way, Prestonpans