East Lothian pupils to help name town
School Children will draft a shortlist to be put to the public
Pupils at primary and secondary schools in East Lothian have been handed responsibility for drafting a shortlist of suggested names for the county's first new town.
Planning permission has been granted for thousands of new homes, a school, business space, shops, sports facilities and parks at the site of the former Blindwells open cast mine, between Tranent, Prestonpans and Longniddry.
School children have been asked to put together a list of suggestions that will be put to the public. They can choose from a long list prepared by council officers based on how existing East Lothian towns got their names, or they can come up with their own.
A public consultation will then be held and the name of the new town will be announced towards the end of the year.
Names which make the final draft but aren't chosen will be incorporated into the development, potentially as street names.
Council Leader Willie Innes said: “This is a truly exciting opportunity for our young people to come up with a name for this town.
"We wanted all school pupils in East Lothian to be involved as they are the generation who will be most likely to be living and working in this new settlement.
"And we wanted to extend the opportunity to all of our schools as it’s not just those in the immediate vicinity who will benefit from a planned new town – it will benefit East Lothian as a whole. I am looking forward to seeing the shortlist that they come up with.
"There has been a lot of public interest in what the new town will be called so we also wanted to give every member of the public the chance to vote on this too so there will be a public consultation once our young people have drawn up the final shortlist. I am pleased that our entire community will get the chance to have their say.”
The approved East Lothian Local Development Plan will safeguard land for potential future extensions of the town.
It aims to bring improvements to local infrastructure, including providing more choices for walking, cycling and travelling by public transport and improvements to roads.
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