InchCape inches North .. as commonsense dictates

Commonsense prevails .. and you just wonder why it took so long?

So there's good news this month along with Council and General Elections. Scottish Power have finally agreed that it makes eminent god sense for InchCape to locate their offshore receiving SubStation on the brownfield land created with demolition of Cockenzie Power station. Rather than on the 1745 battlefield or straddling the 1722 Waggonway.

As the map just now released in the East Lothian Courier clearly shows, the existing underground cables are a legacy of the old power station just as is the National Grid connection. To have carried south onto the battlesite and back again to the grid connection was always sub-optimal.



Why then was the community so provoked for so many years, and pointlessly? The energy that the Coastal Regeneration Alliance and the 1745 Battle Trust were called upon to expend arguing the case could have been so much more usefully deployed elsewhere.

But every dark cloud is reputed to have a silver lining or more and so it has transpired for us. The 1745 Battle Trust has mobilised global support for its conservation and interpretation campaign; the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Group is on a fantastic roll with archaeology and replica waggons in their sights as well as an enriched walking trail with its own APP available and interpretation boards installed and support from Paths for All. And the Coastal Regeneration Alliance is a key partner in ELC's emergent planning approaches for the whole area.