70,000 Visitors Sets Bells Aringin' ....

More press coverage of 70,000 Visitors' Forecast and a great 'personal' reaction from ELC's Leader in Haddington ...

Max Gaunt's RGA Business Feasibility Study for the Trust's proposed Visitor Centre at Meadowmill continues to arouse media interst and brought forth a message of 'personal' support from David Berry, SNP Leader of the East Lothian Coalition Council with the LibDems. Labour have traditionally been in support with a Trustee in former Labour Provost Pat O'Brien who was active personally in the 250th Anniversary Re-enactment in 1995, and East Lothian's Labour MSPs [then] John Home-Robertson and [now] Iain Gray are both wholly behind the campaign.

As the Sunday Times reports, presentation meetings with the Council are scheduled in the next few weeks. In the meantime, the Trustees are at pains to emphasise that there is no commitment from East Lothian Council to 'fund' the Centre as the report infers - oh that it were. What is asked of the Council is its agreement that the publicly owned lands at Meadowmill can be the site of the proposed Visitor Centre. The Trustees are wholly committed to seeking national funding and private donations to achieve their goals, with as much assistance in that process as East Lothian Council and indeed Prestonpans Community Council can give in kind and/ or in specie. [Councillor Peter MacKenzie, a Founding Trustee, wrote to the Sunday Times the following week to set the record straight there. And the same Letters' Column saw Andrew Gray raising 'significant' points that will certainly be part of the authoritative interpretation at the Visitor Centre in 2011!]

The Leisure and Attractions press also took note - which was most welcome.

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