PRESTONPANS Community Council will not oppose proposed revised East Lothian electoral boundary changes, amid fears an intervention could be harmful to the town. 

Boundaries Scotland has revealed amended plans to scrap the East Lothian constituency at Holyrood and instead split the county, electorally, into two new seats: Edinburgh Eastern, Musselburgh and Tranent – which would also include Elphinstone, Whitecraig and Wallyford – and Lothian Eastern, covering the rest of the county.

READ MORE: East Lothian name at risk at Holyrood as Tranent set for switch under new proposals

These replace previous proposals which would have seen Prestonpans, and not Tranent as is being mooted now, moved out of the East Lothian constituency for the Scottish Parliament elections.

At that time, it was proposed that Tranent becomes part of the Midlothian North and Musselburgh constituency, which already includes Dalkeith, Musselburgh and Wallyford, and would have also included a portion of the east of Edinburgh.

Prestonpans Community Council chair DJ Johnston-Smith described the then proposed electoral  map of East Lothian as looking “like Frankenstein’s Monster’s fist”.

READ MORE: Bid to remove Prestonpans from county constituency labelled ‘madness’

The group debated at a meeting last week whether to object to the new proposals which keep Prestonpans in the East Lothian constituency... apparently at Tranent's expense.

Dr Johnston-Smith said: “I think Tranent [and Elphinstone] Community Council have a big task ahead, as we did, in opposing this.

“When we had our concerns before, there was certainly no support from Tranent. But we could still come to the Belters’ aid. But I don’t think we have any locus in Tranent’s fight, nor did they in ours at the time.”

Ferhan Ashiq, member, argued that opposing the name changes of Edinburgh Eastern and Lothian Eastern should be considered.

He said: “I think, at the very least, we should be objecting to the name change. It is East Lothian, it will still be East Lothian.”

READ MORE: Fears boundary change could make Tranent a 'suburb of Edinburgh'

However, Dr Johnston-Smith raised concerns that overturning the latest proposals could see Prestonpans sacrificed once again.

He said: “I think the argument would be that if we oppose Tranent being removed, do they go back to the original plan and Prestonpans gets removed?

“I think there could be a scenario where it is one or the other and we can’t have Prestonpans removed.”

The group agreed to withhold objections at the moment.