A BEACH app which could offer visitors to East Lothian up-to-date advice on how to avoid the crowds is being given a £29,000 boost from East Lothian Council’s business recovery fund.

Elected members voted to approve the cash injection, despite being warned by Councillor Jeremy Findlay (Con) they had to be able to “look people in East Lothian in the eye”.

Mr Findlay had urged fellow councillors to amend the £600,000 business recovery plan put before them by officers to delay the funds until more information was provided about the app, which is being developed in partnership with the University of Edinburgh.

The app, councillors were told, will use sensor technology to monitor how busy visitor attractions such as beach car parks are and allow people to check before arriving, assisting with “visitor management and flow, as well as marketing decisions to help move visitors throughout the county”.

Mr Findlay, however, questioned the impact of such an app, pointing out that the council had used electronic signs last summer to warn people beaches were full and they still came.

He told a virtual meeting of the full council that there were too many questions still to be answered about the app, who would use it and who would eventually own it.

He said: “We are being asked to provide £29,000 but what do we get for this money? The answer is we don’t know.

“We don’t know who will own it, when it will be built, if this is the final bill or will there be further funding required.

“There is no information to show how many visitors will bother to download it.”

He added that no information about whether it would be free or charge people or any future income from it had been provided, adding: “We have to be able to look people in East Lothian in the eye when we are spending the public pound.”

Despite Mr Findlay’s misgivings, which were supported by fellow Conservative councillors, with Councillor Lachlan Bruce seconding his amendment, the funding was approved by 14 votes to six.

Councillor Norman Hampshire (Lab) told the meeting: “I think we should move forward as quickly as we can to get this app, this is a great investment.”

And Councillor Stuart Currie (SNP) told the meeting the SNP Group would not back Mr Findlay’s amendment.

He said: “We are going to have to take some things at face value. It is a lot of money but, if successful, it will be part of our tool kit.

“Some of these investments will work and some will not, but that does not mean we should not try.”

The business recovery fund approved by councillors included £100,000 for a one-off Covid Recovery Grant scheme which it said was for key tourism groups,  “namely Scotland’s Golf Coast and East Lothian Tourism Attractions Group”.

It also provided £60,000 to drive digital recovery.

The funding was included in an extensive report on the council’s Covid response and recovery plans which highlighted the work of staff in all areas throughout the last year.

Councillor Willie Innes (Lab), council leader, told the meeting that he hoped the debate over the beach app would not detract from the wider message of the report of the “incredible work carried out by council staff”.

The full report can be found here: www.eastlothian.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/16623/east_lothian_council