A NEW trustee has been added to the Lamp of Lothian Trust.

Jenny Harper, who lives near Stenton, was welcomed aboard by fellow trustees at the group’s AGM last month.

Jenny, who was born in Midlothian, has lived in the Garden County since 1979 when she married Joe Harper, chairman of Dods of Haddington, seed merchants.

She runs a successful garden design business and was a governor of Belhaven Hill School for 17 years, with the last six as chairwoman.

She has also been closely involved with the RNLI at Dunbar.

Patrick Gammell, chairman of The Lamp of Lothian Trust, was delighted to welcome Jenny to the board.

He said: “Her experience both in business and the charitable sector is most valuable and I very much look forward to working with her.” The Lamp of Lothian Trust was founded in 1967 by the late Duchess of Hamilton to bring together “a whole community” by restoring some derelict buildings at the south end of Haddington and making them available for community use.

These are still owned, maintained and insured by the Lamp but lent to the community at little or no cost for the widest variety of cultural, artistic and social uses; more than 1,000 people of all ages use the Lamp’s buildings at Poldrate every week, principally through classes and workshops run by The Bridge Centre and Poldrate Arts and Crafts Centre.

The charity also runs the Lammermuir Festival each September.