Here are this week's letters:

Police funding

The proposed station closures across East Lothian confirm that Police Scotland operates as a law unto itself: an unaccountable bureaucracy, disconnected from the communities it’s supposed to serve. While it was created as a symbol of Scottish national virility, too often it has proven an embarrassing flop.
I was surprised to learn that this so-called “cash-strapped” service has an annual budget of £1.5 billion for 2024/25. That amounts to £273 per person annually for every single resident in Scotland. At such eye-watering levels, it might be more cost-effective just to bribe the criminals to stay at home.
East Lothian’s Chief Inspector Ben Leathes has opened a brief consultation exercise on the proposed changes. He also informs us that Prestonpans community police officers are already operating out of Tranent. If he were serious about “listening to the wider views” then that change would have waited until after feedback had been gathered.
As evidenced by its lively car park, Prestonpans Police Station remains in use, providing toilet and break facilities for officers operating in the area. Once it is closed, community officers will be forced to commute into our town from Tranent, thereby spending less time here. 
The claim that police units are “fully mobile” is farcical – officers can fight crime, but they cannot ignore their essential bodily functions. Policing in North Berwick and Dunbar will be severely impacted by these calls of nature.
If the Scottish Government is looking for savings, there are other avenues to explore than cutting community policing. Their ill-conceived Hate Crime Act has dragged officers off the beat and onto Facebook; it should be dropped. They should also review how much strain their climate and diversity agenda is placing on budgets. Additionally, it is questionable how involved the police should be with mental health incidents.
Ultimately, we won’t get the local police service we pay for and deserve unless it is accountable to our communities. All the deafening hand-wringing of our political class over these changes won’t improve accountability. However, routing a proportion of police funding through our community councils might.
Calum Miller
Prestonpans


Parking issues

Thank you, Courier, for last Thursday’s full page article alerting the residents of North Berwick to East Lothian Council’s latest proposals to “solve” and “manage” the crisis of parking in the older central part of the town, with its narrow streets.
The community council and North Berwick Environment & Heritage Trust have been very worried about how much damage it will cause to businesses in the High Street and issues to residents. It seems that ugly parking meters are again about to destroy the old-world ambiance.
According to Councillor John McMillan, the aim is to increase the turnover of parking spaces. 
Has it been calculated how much time might be needed to walk from the parking, then browse the fascinating shops, or have a leisurely meal in a restaurant or café, or spend reasonable time on the beach, then walk back? Browse? Forget it. Leisurely relaxing over a meal? Forget it. Constant checking of watches? Necessity.
The council’s new exciting proposals deceptively offer residents and visitors something that seems wonderful but cannot be guaranteed, or can’t possibly work. Snake-oil marketing or touts overselling timeshare points springs to mind. 
For example, the introduction of day visitor permits for residents to use for family and friends visiting: that definitely will cause a lot of resentment from residents living in the narrow streets of older North Berwick. Many will apply for a permit; if neighbours also apply, there won’t be enough spaces – so it’s probably unworkable.
The proposal to issue weekly permits for short-term lets (STLs): councillors must be totally ignorant of the crisis STLs are causing not only in North Berwick but all tourist places. 
Property is now snapped up as lucrative investment, leading to a shortage of essential housing for both workers and long-term residents.
Parking already is very difficult. Where can residents without driveways leave their car when not using them? 
Now as STLs pocket the often-exorbitant profits, they will have a weekly parking permit, leaving nearby residents resentful and at a disadvantage.
There are some good ideas, however: visitor permits for tradespeople without restriction of time, vital for many residents like myself, but how do I guarantee a space in the narrow street where I live? So, alas, perhaps unworkable.
Permits for RNLI and health workers are also welcome and essential.
Morna Mulgray
North Berwick


Nature crisis

Jacquie Bell makes several good points in the Courier of August 29 when commenting on East Lothian Council’s questionable record regarding the nature crisis.
The specious arguments advanced by various councillors when dismissing the sensible proposals of the Herdmanflat campaigners for a partial redevelopment of the site are ample proof that some of them are only paying lip service to the crisis.
Towns with the best quality of life cherish and enhance their open green spaces, not build all over them.
Graham Hogg
Haddington


School results

The Dunbar Primary School newsletter told parents the school was “excited” to share its latest inspection results.
It had scored ‘satisfactory’ across the board. This is the equivalent of achieving a ‘D’ – classified by Education Scotland, the inspection body, as “strengths just outweigh the weaknesses”.
I was not excited but disappointed by this news, and frankly not surprised. We have a state-of-the-art campus for P4-7 with facilities that smaller primary schools would be in awe of. Why is the school failing to deliver for children in their crucial early years?
Concerning statements from the report include: “In a minority of classrooms children’s work is displayed” and “The quality of teaching is not yet consistently high”.
The inference in the report is that too many children aren’t driven and stretched but are instead held back and become disengaged. A dumbing-down rather than driving up of children who are not pushed to meet their potential?
If this was any other organisation, the place you would look to resolve the problem would be the leadership within the school. But who is responsible for that in our school? The headteacher doesn’t have full responsibility for the management and employment of her staff team.
To some degree, it is the Scottish Government and SNP, with its well-intended but poorly implemented Curriculum for Excellence. But, more directly, it is the Labour-led council who directly manage the school and staff.
A sad comment is that the parent council is only used for fundraising rather than part of setting strategy and standards for the school. Yes, it could be more engaged, but it hasn’t got any real governance powers. In some countries, schools operate as devolved entities, with governing boards from their community responsible and fully engaged in making sure they thrive.
Striving for localism like this, to deliver for our children, is why I am a Liberal Democrat. Meanwhile, our Labour council and SNP government have to be clear on how they will improve the education for our children or it will severely limit their life chances.
Duncan Dunlop
East Lothian Liberal Democrats


My painting

A friend phoned me to say that she thought one of my paintings from way back was in the Courier. It was asking if anyone knew who the artist was for the image that was on Down Memory Lane, page 33, in last week’s Courier.
As soon as I saw it, I realised it was mine, circa 1990.
It was lovely to see it again and I now want to trawl through all the photos of my paintings – it was that long ago. What a surprise.
I have an exhibition on at the moment at Hangar Art & Framing at Fenton Barns.
Sheena Phillips
Haddington

Sheena Phillips' painting, featured in the Courier on August 29 (Image: Sheena Phillips)


Funding truth

As usual, Martin Whitfield MSP fails to tell Courier readers the whole truth (column, August 29).
He attacks the Scottish Government for misallocation of NHS funds to Lothian NHS. There is much greater misallocation of funds going on.
The Barnett Formula block grant is not based on the needs of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Why not, Mr Whitfield? 
Research by Stirling University in 2013 found that if the grant was based on need, Scotland would get more money per head for the NHS – about £255 million each year. 
In 2009, the House of Lords said the block grant was unfair and should be allocated on the basis of need, taking account of income levels, ages, unemployment levels, and health and disability.
Labour had the chance then to accept that conclusion and allocate funds to Scotland fairly. It did not do so. 
The Smith Commission was another opportunity. Labour’s intention now is to continue the austerity it supported under the Tories.
NHS Lothian says its problems are financial and lack of staff in certain fields. There have been years of underfunding and understaffing of health by UK governments. 
Staffing levels in NHS England are the worst in history, said a cross-party committee of MPs. That’s reflected in Scotland’s unfair block grant funding. Poverty for the UK is a political choice made by successive UK governments spanning 50 years.
Sam McComb
Dunbar

 

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