East Lothian Courier letters: April 4, 2024

Vital that hospital site is retained

In January, I wrote with concerns about the continued closure of the free NHS beds in Ward 3 at Belhaven Hospital, related to the remedial works on the water system. They have remained closed.

In March, following fireraising in the grounds, the fire service requested immediate evacuation of residents from Blossom House Care Home [Ward 1, Belhaven Hospital] after an unannounced inspection.

Rumours soon abounded in the community that Belhaven Hospital had closed but assurances were given that the move was temporary.

Fast forward to March 28 and the Integrated Joint Board (IJB) budget-setting meeting. Members voted to close the entire Belhaven site, including Blossom House; Ward 2, used as a community staff and vaccination hub; Ward 3 NHS beds; and the area used by Belhaven Community Garden.

Reasons given for closure include the old buildings not being fit for purpose and the isolation of the site, particularly following the fire incidents. This is despite a considerable sum being spent since August 2022 on the remedial work to sort the water system – work that has only just been completed.

Finance is clearly a factor here. Belhaven has seen limited investment, whilst NHS Lothian spends millions on the contract with Consort to lease the Royal Infirmary.

The Scottish Government blames Westminster but it is the Scottish Government that has been ploughing millions into much delayed proposals for a National Care Service. East Lothian Council has chosen to invest £5 million in repairs to the Loch Centre roof whilst closing care homes.

The closure highlights a history of broken promises on the future of Belhaven. In 2009, closure was averted and then Health Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised new facilities. A new unit was one of three proposed in the Older People Strategy of 2010 – a strategy scrapped by the new ELC administration in 2012. In 2015, the health minister refused monies to keep Ward 2 open because new facilities were planned. In 2020, discussions were ongoing with Hub SE about new build.

The closure will have a major impact. In the short term, the residents of Blossom House are losing their home. In Dunbar there are only 48 beds at private Lammermuir House. There are fewer beds than 20 years ago. Other care homes are not easy to get to without a car due to poor public transport. It is the same for NHS beds – those in Haddington and Edinburgh are not easy to get to, especially from the Lammermuir villages. Also affected are the staff, many of whom have worked at Belhaven for a long time.

The closure will impact on bed blocking in the acute NHS sector. Care packages can be difficult to access, do not give overnight care and are not sufficient for those who need 24-hour support, especially for those with dementia care needs.

It is vital that the Belhaven site is retained for health and social care purposes. In the meantime, NHS Lothian will have to pay to keep the site secure. It would be a shame for it to fester like Edenhall.

Jacquie Bell

Belhaven

Letters ignored

I am wondering what it takes to get our esteemed, elected councillors to respond to constituents’ letters.

I wrote to Councillor Hampshire on March 8 objecting to the proposals to reduce the speed limit on the A199 to 40mph in order to allow for the expansion of a largely unused cycle lane, after an alleged but very limited public consultation (it’s not even on the council website).

As a retired road safety professional, I provided a number of considered reasons why I did not think these proposals are appropriate.

I did not even receive an acknowledgement, so I wrote to Provost McMillan on March 25, including additional information which had subsequently become known to me. I haven’t received an acknowledgement to this either.

It’s pretty disappointing that councillors seem to be above responding to their constituents. After all, we do pay their wages and they are there to represent us and to take on board our concerns.

I’d like to think that the councillors are so busy dealing with negative feedback about this white elephant scheme, which is clearly a waste of taxpayers’ money, that they haven’t got to my emails yet, but I think that is highly unlikely.

I’d therefore like to ask everyone who is against the proposal to reduce the A199 speed limit to 40mph and to narrow the carriageway to allow an expensive, but completely worthless, cycle path to please write to their own councillor without delay, expressing their displeasure.

For the record, I am not against cyclists and I think that their safety as vulnerable road users is very important, as is the safety of pedestrians.

I did include suggestions in my emails as to how vulnerable road users could be accommodated but not at the expense of the vast majority of road users on this major route, including the passengers on three well-used bus routes who would be adversely affected by this speed reduction.

Please email your councillors or write to them by mail at East Lothian Council, John Muir House, Brewery Park, Haddington, East Lothian EH41 3HA.

Kenneth Ingram

Walker Terrace

East Linton

‘A dose of salt’

Congratulations to your layout team for the inspired irony in their design of the spread for pages 2-3 in last week’s Courier.

The story of the “School to close ‘temporarily’ as numbers drop” sits opposite your accurate prediction of the axing of the Edington Hospital (and the Abbey and other local care facilities), which North Berwick’s residents were told two years ago would be “temporary”.

Unfortunately, it seems that any assurances of this sort that come from East Lothian Council and their associated bodies must be taken with a huge dose of salt.

By the way, your designers could have achieved even greater irony had they been able to juxtapose the piece on the removal of vital local community care provision with last week’s splash about North Berwick being “the best to live in the UK”!

I’m writing this on April 1, and I wish I was joking, but I’m not.

Eddie Clark

St Baldred’s Road

North Berwick

‘Baying mob’

Sadly, Domino’s has been denied permission to open in Haddington. I note no mention was made of the petition being considered by the planning committee. I had warned them a while back that they don’t count where planning permission is concerned.

And a female councillor “drove past” another Domino’s outlet and made a decision. Couldn’t she park somewhere, get out and watch for a good while? Sounds like laziness to me.

Here in the Borders, there are two Domino’s outlets, in Hawick and Galashiels, and they cause no problems in the busy streets they are in.

I personally think the councillors who voted against giving permission were influenced by a baying mob in Haddington. Far too many councillors put potential votes before anything else; it’s called ‘civic cowardice’!

Andrew Heatlie

Duns

Safer pavement

Can I say a hearty thank you to East Lothian Council and their road works team? They have made the east end of North Berwick High Street safer and more attractive by extending the pavements on both sides of the street.

As a local resident that uses this junction almost daily, I’m very happy with the result. I would further like to suggest ELC extends these wider pavements the full length of the congested and narrow stretch at the east end of the High Street as far as Nisa, where the road opens up. This wouldn’t reduce legal parking, as both sides of the street have double yellow lines.

Thanks again, ELC and their team, for making North Berwick a more pleasant and safer place to live.

T Proudfoot

Victoria Road

North Berwick

Hate crime law

Now that the SNP’s hate crime legislation has come into effect, are we to see the courts pages of the East Lothian Courier cluttered with reports of people who have been criminalised for exercising their right to free speech?

Senior police officers have warned that activists could weaponise the new legislation for their own political or campaigning purposes.

Last week, the Scottish Police Federation – who represent rank-and-file officers – revealed that not all officers had been trained in the new SNP laws.

Regardless of how these cases are dealt with by police and prosecutors, these new laws will have a chilling effect on free speech.

Surely the Scottish police and our courts would be better tackling real crimes and keeping communities safe, rather than having to investigate what are quite likely to be malicious and spurious complaints about what people might think, or have said to others in private.

Frontline policing in Scotland is at breaking point under the SNP – and the resources which will now go into investigating so-called hate crimes would be far better spent catching real criminals. Meanwhile, the court backlogs will surely only get worse once these cases come to trial.

The SNP have the wrong priorities for Scotland.

Anthony Stodart

Kingston

Child poverty

Martin Whitfield MSP has a rare cheek to criticise any Scottish Government over its record on child poverty (column, March 28).

Child poverty in the UK stems directly from Tory austerity, a response to the UK financial crash in 2007/8. Light touch regulation of the financial sector by Gordon Brown allowed that financial crash.

Between 2010 and 2015, the Tories reduced welfare payments by £21 billion and after 2015 by a further £12 billion.

In 2015, proposed Tory benefit reductions were opposed by only 48 Labour MPs.

The passing of the Welfare Reform and Work Act reduced the household benefit cap and cut child tax credits.

Keir Starmer says Labour will keep the two-child benefit cap, a policy Anas Sarwar finds “heinous”.

The policy, from April 2017, affects 1.5 million UK children and causes poverty.

In Scotland, scrapping it could take 30,000 out of poverty, including 20,000 children.

Child poverty rates in Scotland are much lower than those in England, 24 per cent against 31 per cent, mainly due to the Scottish Child Payment, the Best Start Grant, the Discretionary Housing payment and lower-than-average childcare costs. The combined value of these factors can reduce the net cost to low-income families of bringing up a child by over a third (CPAG).

In remote areas of Scotland, the higher cost of essentials such as food and fuel means that, even with additional financial support from the Scottish Government, there is an increased risk of being unable to reach a socially acceptable standard of living.

UK governments’ policies break Scottish lives and communities.

Sam McComb

Dunbar