Lesley's update

By Lesley Brown, Executive Director for Education and Children's Services

As I write this update, the seasons are beginning to change and it’s starting to feel more Autumnal. I hope that you have had a good summer and have managed to have a break, in spite of the unseasonal weather.

Since my last update, the new United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) legislation has gone live and this places enhanced duties on the Council to take in to account children’s rights in all of our work. I have had the pleasure of chairing the UNCRC working group over the last two years which brings together ‘UNCRC Champions’ from across the Council. Working together, we have been considering the changes we need to make to our work and how we will take account of children’s rights in new policies and pieces of work. I am very grateful to those colleagues who have supported this important area on the group and particularly to Keren Conway, Principal Solicitor, who has supported the group and helped ensure that we are ready to uphold children’s rights through the new legislation. We already have many great examples of practice from across the Council on which to build and I would encourage you to consider what more you can do to support this work in your own service area. You can find out more on our 'UNCRC resources' Intranet pages under 'your workplace'.

In recent months, it has been really good to get a more in-depth understanding of the work going on in both our Housing and Communities services. I have been able to see first-hand the huge amounts of work that our staff do for our citizens in communities. I have been particularly impressed with the dedication of staff groups to improve their work with significant developments underway in both Housing and in Communities. It has also been really good to bring together senior leaders in Education, Children’s Services, Communities and Housing as we work together to consider what more we can do collectively to address many of the issues in our communities. We recognise that taking an early intervention and preventative approach will have the biggest impact and, in the coming months, I am looking forward to engaging with more staff to discuss what else we can do.

Work has continued on our approach to leadership development and I am grateful to Rebecca Grangeret who has continued to drive this area forward. We recognise that, irrespective of role and area of work, we are all leaders in our own right and to that end we have begun work on a leadership strategy. We have many examples of fantastic leaders working across the Council and some very innovative development work underway.  We now want to be able to explain that for all staff and to ensure that those who are interested in leadership development are able to access support to take the next step in their career. I am really looking forward to launching our new Aspiring Senior Leader programme in October and I am grateful to those colleagues who have signed up to be part of it. I am also grateful to a small number of team leaders who are keen to work with us on developing an Aspiring Service Manager programme.

While Spring is traditionally a time of growth and change, for colleagues across the council, Autumn offers a chance to embrace new opportunities. Whether personally or professionally, I hope that you find something you are inspired to try this season.

Best wishes,

Lesley

New video showcases the best of East Lothian’s ‘agritourism’

Agritourism is a growing trend, with visitors seeking out authentic experiences that connect them to the countryside and Scotland’s natural larder. Showcasing the best of this thriving sector, a new video has been launched that highlights the rich agritourism offering in East Lothian and the region’s diverse farm-based experiences.

 

Agritourism is defined as tourism or leisure on a working farm, croft or estate which produces food. This can include accommodation such as farmhouses, glamping, tours and experiences, events and buying fresh local produce direct from a farm shop. The video shines a spotlight on some of East Lothian’s local farmers who offer distinctive stays, immersive experiences, and high-quality food and drink, contributing to East Lothian’s growing reputation as a must-visit destination.

Eat, stay, play and shop on the farm

The video has been well received by local businesses involved in the sector. Jo McNicol, owner of Drift cafe on Castleton Farm near North Berwick and Scottish Agritourism board member, said: “It was great to be part of the East Lothian filming to raise awareness of the different agritourism businesses across East Lothian. The sector is delivering amazing opportunities for on-farm visits to eat, stay, play and shop and East Lothian has all of these. I really hope everyone enjoys the film and we look forward to welcoming you.” 

The Visit East Lothian site has more information on our local agritourism. If you know someone who operates in the sector in East Lothian or a farm interested in diversifying into agritourism, ask them to contact visit@eastlothian.gov.uk 

 

 

Get on board! Bus services survey

Did you know: the council subsidises some bus services on routes where commercial bus operators would not be able to cover their costs. We do this where no alternative route exists and may pay a commercial operator to cover a whole route, or part of a route at a particular time of day, if a need is identified. Many of these are in rural areas.

Transport Services is consulting on its supported buses with a short online questionnaire and a series of drop-in events. The survey attempts to establish where the greatest need for supported bus services in East Lothian is so that we can spend our budget most effectively. 

Get involved!

Complete the survey 

Visit one of the in-person consultation events

• Bleachingfield Dunbar: 1 Oct 2024 noon until 1.30pm
• Musselburgh Library: 2 Oct 2024 at 11am to 12.30pm
• George Johnstone Centre, Tranent: 3 Oct 2024 10am to 11:30am

For more information please contact transportservices@eastlothian.gov.uk 

The consultation closes on 20 October.

Public engagement on Planning Older People’s Services priorities launched

Over the last 12 months, ELHSCP has been engaging with local communities, providers, and staff to identify, develop and prioritise suggestions that could support the delivery of older people’s services for generations to come. 

Having identified four priorities, ELHSCP has launched a 12-week engagement and consultation schedule where public can share their comments.

The four priorities

Priority 1: Review palliative and end of life care
This priority indicates a request to review and enhance the options available within palliative care, so people can plan and consider their preferences for their end-of-life care and treatment.

Priority 2: Polypharmacy reviews
This priority indicates an opportunity for a more coordinated approach to polypharmacy reviews undertaken in East Lothian. An ‘invest to save’ approach could see an increase in polypharmacy reviews aiming to reduce potential harm from medicines in older patients, improving quality of life, reducing medicines burden for patients, reducing avoidable hospital admissions, and ensuring medicines are used cost effectively across East Lothian.

Priority 3: Intermediate Care Services
This priority provides an opportunity to remain committed to developing intermediate care services to facilitate care closer to home and ensure that East Lothian’s population can remain within their own communities for as long as possible. Provision of efficient and effective intermediate care is also vital to alleviate pressure on hospital and care home beds.

Priority 4: Use of technology
This priority identifies an opportunity for enhancing the use of technology and increasing digital choice in order to support the development of efficient and sustainable services for older people, that are agile and responsive to the changing needs of the East Lothian population.

How to get involved

ELHSCP is looking to engage with a wide range of people, who have an interest in or may be directly affected by the delivery of older people’s services in the future. This includes people currently making use of our services, their family members and/or carers, health and social care staff, community groups, third sector organisations, providers, partner organisations and the public who live and work in East Lothian and may require access to older people’s services in the future.

Complete the online survey:  www.eastlothian.gov.uk/pops-consultation
From the website, members of the public can share their views on the identified priorities and make comments on the engagement process to date, which is outlined in a presentation document. Closing date for comments is 8 December 2024.

Attend an event:  ELHSCP will be hosting a series of in-person pop-up events, within each of the major towns in East Lothian. Members of the public are welcome to come along and share their feedback in person. There will be paper copies of our project findings as well as a feedback form.

Schedule of events: 

• Saturday 28 September, 11am to 3pm, Fisherrow Centre, Musselburgh
• Tuesday 1 October, 10:30am to 2:30pm, Fraser Centre, Tranent
• Tuesday 8 October, 10:30am to 2:30pm, Bleachingfield Centre, Dunbar
• Tuesday 15 October:
  • 10am to 1pm, John Gray Centre, Haddington
  • 2pm to 4pm, East Lothian Community Hospital, Haddington
• Thursday 24 October, 10:30am to 2:30pm, Pennypit Centre, Prestonpans
• Tuesday 29 October, 10:30am to 2:30pm,  Hope Rooms, 34 Forth Street, North Berwick

Alternatively, members of the public can email their views directly to the project team via: engagement-hscp@eastlothian.gov.uk  

A dedicated website providing full details of the background to this project, as well as the engagement and selection process to date to arrive at the four priorities, is detailed on www.eastlothian.gov.uk/elhscp/pops

Planning Committee agrees to object to a windfarm at Newlands Hill

East Lothian Planning Committee met on Tuesday 3 September and agreed to submit an objection to Scottish Ministers via the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit (ECU) in relation to a proposed windfarm at Newlands Hill.

The application was submitted to the ECU on behalf of Belltown Power UK Wind Ltd, for 17 turbines, battery storage and associated infrastructure and access on land at Newlands Hill approximately 6km southeast of Gifford on the northern edge of the Lammermuir Hills. East Lothian Council is a consultee on the application.

Following a debate, Planning Committee members agreed with council officers’ recommendation and voted unanimously to submit an objection to the proposals.

Whilst the principle of need is established for green energy production and East Lothian Council has declared a Climate Emergency and has strong policy support for renewable energy, it was decided that this particular proposal would have significant adverse impact on landscape, cultural heritage,and biodiversity. It would have significant adverse impact on the historic environment, in particular on Traprain Law hill fort and the wider historic landscape in which it sits, and the stone circles at Johnscleugh. The route identified for abnormal loads was unacceptable due to its impact on prime agricultural land, while other potential routes from the south were either not feasible or would be even more environmentally damaging.

Planning Committee also debated an application for three new homes to be built on agricultural land west of The Stables, Elphinstone, opposite new homes currently being built by Bellway. A previous application had been refused planning permission in April this year. The applicant re-submitted the application for three new homes for herself and her daughters, stating that the landscape had changed and due to the new development, the site could no longer be described as countryside, but was part of the village of Elphinstone. Three letters of objection had been received to the proposal.

Planners had again recommended refusal of the application as the erection of three houses on the application site would be new build housing development in the countryside of East Lothian on land which is not allocated for housing development.

Committee members voted five in favour of granting planning permission and five against. The Chair’s casting vote meant the application was refused permission.

The relevant application numbers are; Newlands Hill, 24/00001/SGC and Elphinstone, 24/00672/P.

Changes agreed to council housing allocations policy to help with the current housing crisis

Changes have been agreed to the council’s housing allocations policy to ease the extreme pressure on the homelessness service and provide improved outcomes for our homeless clients.

Members of the Cabinet agreed to implement a Homelessness Action Plan 2024-26 which includes interim changes in the allocations policy to allow single person homeless applicants, who meet certain criteria, to access two bedroomed properties as well as ensuring that selected areas and house types are as wide as possible for all homeless households. These changes will promote quicker and improved housing outcomes and enable the council to meet its statutory duties.

Housing Emergency

The decision to make these changes sits within the context of the Scottish Government’s declaration of a Housing Emergency in May this year after five local authorities in Scotland declared housing emergencies in their areas. That number has now risen to 11. Common themes amongst these local authorities include pressures on homelessness services, high levels of people in temporary accommodation, high need and demand for affordable housing and a lack of affordable homes.

In April 2024, the Scottish Housing Regulator named eight local authorities as being at heightened risk of systemic failure regarding the delivery of homelessness services. East Lothian Council is one of the local authorities named, with a particular focus on high levels of breaches in respect of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order and use of temporary accommodation. East Lothian received 695 homelessness applications in 2022/23 and 795 in 2023/24 and these numbers continue to rise. The average length of time spent in temporary accommodation by single homeless households was 452 days in 2022/23, compared with the Scottish average of 207 days.

Other measures included in the Homelessness Action Plan include: 

• Working with social landlord partners to allow nomination of single households to two bedroomed properties in line with the proposed interim allocations policy changes, where possible.
• Reviewing the voids process and implementing a performance framework to reduce the re-let times for our void properties.
• Reducing use of temporary accommodation generally and unsuitable accommodation specifically, whilst aiming to get homeless households into secure accommodation more swiftly and without the need to enter temporary accommodation where it can be avoided.
• Reviewing and transforming the Housing Options Service to improve processes and procedures.
• Exploring all options to help maximise the supply of new affordable housing

 A formal review will be undertaken half-way through delivery of the Action Plan, with any further changes brought to Cabinet as appropriate.

Read the Cabinet paper online from the council website.

Copying from external publications

Copyright

The council holds a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency. This permits employees to make paper or digital copies of content from most books, magazines, journals and periodicals and digital publications.

Newspapers

Colleagues are reminded that the council no longer holds a licence from the Newspaper Licensing Agency. This previously permitted employees to make occasional copies from newspaper publications for internal management. As a result employees must ensure they do not:

• circulate newspaper or magazine articles or extracts internally, via email
• copy or save articles onto internal computer drives
• photocopy or scan articles
• digitally copy articles from a newspaper or magazine website
• print content from a newspaper or magazine website
• print or copy content from a media monitoring service or PR agency
• provide any newspaper or magazine content to external contacts
• place copies of any articles on a corporate website or social media pages

You can still view or share links electronically to online news websites. Many news stories about the council or of interest to employees are now published in this way.

Share your views on our council website

As you may know, our council website www.eastlothian.gov.uk is due to be renewed in the next two years. As part of the process, the web project team has initiated a quick online survey to gather a wide range of views on the current site to help inform decisions ahead of the new version being commissioned.

Information has been shared on our council social media channels and sent directly to a wide range of partners. This includes community councils, area partnerships, tenants and residents panels, schools and parent councils, and partnership organisations.

However we want to hear from our staff so a special version of the survey is available for council colleagues. This has been developed to find out how teams currently use the website, what features work well and what could be improved in the new site. Whether you create content, share partnership information, work on the site as a web editor, gather reports submitted through 'report-it' functions, use it to find details about other services, or simply direct customers and residents to find further information, your view is important to us. The survey is quick and easy to complete and can be accessed from non-council devices.   

www.eastlothian.gov.uk/staff-website-survey  

The survey closes on 30 September. 

2024 Employee Survey – Your feedback and next steps

Thank you to the 1,058 employees who completed the 2024 Employee Survey. This represents 42% of employees who were invited to respond. Since school-based employees were last surveyed in November 2023 they will be surveyed in September. 

The results summarised here therefore only include non-school based employees. The results for every service have been shared with Service Managers who should discuss the results with their employees.

At the council level, the responses to seven of the eight questions that are asked in every survey showed more positive responses than in 2023.

Question	2023	2024
I know how my job contributes to council’s objectives	93.2%	94.5%
I am aware of the East Lothian Way	90.8%	92.2%
I am treated fairly	86.7%	87.3%
I am encouraged to offer new ideas	80.4%	84.3%
I have a manageable workload	70.4%	73.3%
Change is managed well	67.4%	67.8%
I have had a personal/ professional review in the past 12 months	55.0%	59.0%

Only one question, ‘The council is a great place to work’ had a lower positive response than in 2023; 83.1% compared to 83.8%.

The 2024 survey included 15 new questions to provide the basis for council and service self-evaluations. Eleven of these questions received over 80% positive (Strongly Agree & Agree) responses. The questions with the most positive responses were:

• I have clarity around what is expected of me in my role – 90.9%
• I work in a safe and healthy environment – 87.4%

Two questions received between 75% and 80% positive responses:

• My service responds to feedback from service users to improve how it delivers it services – 75.7%
• My line manager motivates me to achieve my best results – 78.2%

Two questions received under 75% positive responses. These were:

• When changes are made at work, I am clear about how they will work out in practice – 72.2%
• My service manages its staff in the best way to achieve the goals of the service – 71.3%

There were some variations in the responses to these questions between services.

490 employees provided comments on what the council could do differently to be more efficient or effective in how we deliver our services to meet the financial challenges we face. There are too many to provide a detailed response to them here. A summary with examples is below:  

Positive or no change required:

“At the moment we are working as effectively as possible”.

Some people made suggestions that we are already doing or plan to do as part of the Transformation programme:

“Develop and introduce digital forms, this would save time and effort and therefore make staff tasks more efficient”

“Close unnecessary buildings”

“Better data sharing between teams”

Concern about workload and resources:

“More admin support is required within our service”

“Our team is short staffed for the area we cover, having more staff would help to alleviate the pressures”

“Difficult to see how we can be more efficient short of recruiting more staff”

Improved engagement internally is needed:

“Communication needs to be better”

“Timely and well communicated decision-making”

The results/comments have been shared with senior management, and the Transformation team. They will consider what suggestions can be acted on now, or can be added to the list of ideas that are being considered for inclusion on the Transformation programme.

The Council Management Team recognises the concerns raised about workload and the need to improve engagement. The Council Plan is being re-prioritised to target resources to new priorities in order to manage council resources more effectively. Consideration is being given to how to support all managers to communicate more effectively with employees in order to reduce uncertainty about the impact of budget decisions, what is happening with service and staffing reviews, and inevitable change that is required to meet the challenges faced by the council and its employees.

If you want any further information on the survey and actions being taken in response to the issues and concerns raised by employees contact: Rebecca Grangeret, Organisational Development Manager

Read the 2024 consultation results

 

UNCRC: what does it mean for East Lothian Council?

16 July was an historic moment for Scotland’s children and young people – it marks the introduction of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots Law.

The UNCRC is underpinned by four general principles, all of which are reflected throughout the specific articles of the Convention:

• Children should not be discriminated against
• The best interests of the child should be a primary consideration
• Children have rights to life, survival and development
• Children’s views should be given due weight and consideration

UNCRC Champions

A UNCRC working group has been in place in the Council since September 2022. It is chaired by the Executive Director for Education and Children’s Services Lesley Brown and includes representatives from all service areas. Members of the working group act as UNCRC ‘Champions’ and provide support and advice to their service areas. Discussions have included how to identify and meet training and support needs, how we best learn from actions taken in other council areas or individual service plans, and how these relate and impact to new and existing Council-wide corporate plans.

There has been some great work carried out already within areas of the council. For example, schools have been on a children’s rights journey for a number of years with many achieving accreditation from Unicef for their work and the recent Joint Inspection of Children and young people at risk of harm commented on how well children’s rights are embedded in our work across the Children’s Strategic Partnership.  Many services already work to include children and young people’s views in the actions they take, allowing a range of communication methods to suit individual needs. Work to review, strengthen and improve these methods is already underway. 

Resources for staff

As UNCRC continues to be embedded across Scotland we will be sharing examples of good practice with teams to make it easier to understand what Children’s Rights means for departments. You can view materials from our intranet and we will continue to add to this resource. On the Intranet homepage visit U on the A-Z of council services (UNCRC) or C (Children's Rights). 

If you’re interested in the work of East Lothian Council’s UNCRC champions, please contact your service's UNCRC Champion, which is available from the UNCRC intranet section.

Council nominated in first ever Corporate Parenting Awards

James Coutts, Service Manager - Community Housing and Homelessness, was shortlisted in the first ever Corporate Parenting Awards under the ‘Equality, Respect & Love’ award category.  In addition, our Education Service was also shortlisted in the ‘Outstanding Educational Practice’ category.

James’ nomination was submitted by the East Lothian Champions Board. Keith Ward from WhoCares? Scotland.

James’ approach is personal and genuine. He makes a concerted effort to connect with group members beyond the formalities of his role, fostering trust and respect. His commitment is evident as he is always the first to sign up for group events, such as update meetings and Christmas meals.

It is a bit humbling to be nominated by the Champs Board and I would like to extend my thanks to them for the nomination and being more amazing than I can ever be.  It is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job to hear about the experiences of those who are in or have come through the care system and see their drive to improve things and in turn to be able to positively change the way our service interacts with those who are care-experienced.  Of course, none of this would be possible without the efforts of my staff who support me in our commitment to help those with care experience in their housing journey, both practically and with real compassion and care - James Coutts

Recently, James with help from his team collaborated with the group to create a resource for first-time council tenants, both physical and digital, called “First Steps.” This resource aims to provide essential information and support, particularly for Care Experienced young people transitioning to independent living. James has kept the group updated on the project’s progress and continues to seek their input.

James also champions a trauma-informed approach, making related training mandatory for all staff in his service area. This ensures that Care Experienced young people receive supportive and understanding engagement from housing staff. Additionally, he has established dedicated points of contact within his service area for Care Experienced individuals, promoting a more personalized and consistent service.

James’ dedication extends to participating in residential visits, such as a camp on Skye, where his presence had a profound positive impact on the attendees. His efforts to increase housing options and resources for Care Experienced people in East Lothian are unwavering.

Members of the Champions Board describe James as “kind, inspirational, and amazing,” highlighting his investment, diligence, and reliability. His compassionate and honest nature makes him a true champion for Care Experienced young people in East Lothian.

The Awards ceremony was held on 22 August and sadly, neither James nor our Education Service won in their respective categories.  Their nominations, however, are testament to their positive and progressive Corporate Parenting practice recognising the key role that East Lothian Council can play in the lives of care-experienced people.

New play areas web pages launched

A new area has been created on our website to showcase council managed play areas across the county and the range of opportunities for active and imaginative play. 

The pages www.eastlothian.gov.uk/play-areas have been created to provide details on current play areas as well as the types of experiences and play equipment we are aiming for across East Lothian. Play areas are designed to cater to a wide range of ages and abilities, with a strong emphasis on accessibility and inclusion.

The council recently approved the East Lothian Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) of our formal and informal play spaces  – a duty under Scotland’s new Planning legislation. The work was undertaken by Play Scotland, and identified key positive aspects, key development findings, and recommendations for our play areas.

This, along with support from ELPA (East Lothian Play Association), has enabled us to improve our consultation and engagement processes for new and renewed play areas and to amend our specification briefs for new play areas, particularly to improve inclusion and accessibility.

Current play area projects

Current play area projects with these new processes in place are:

• Renewal of Muirpark Play Area at Ormiston Road, Tranent – play area renewal currently underway and being installed by the Play Squad. It will include more inclusive and accessible play equipment including more rubber wetpour surfacing which is fully accessible to all abilities, funded by Scottish Government Play Parks Renewal Funding
• Renewal of Lauderdale Park Play Area, Dunbar - installation work will begin later this year dunded by the Scottish Play Parks Renewal Funding. Installation will be carried by an external company due to its size & scale
• Enhancement of Gullane Play Area, Memorial Park in Gullane – also in preparation and coming soon, hopefully later this year. This will be installed by the Play Squad, funded by Section 75 developer contributions after considerable ongoing public consultation work led by Steve Wands and Michael Campbell, Club & Community Sport Development Officer

“It's been great to see community led Play Area ‘design briefs’ arising from these consultations and this in combination with the Play Sufficiency Assessment findings, is resulting in fun, engaging, accessible, inclusive and accessible Play Areas that meet local aspirations.”  -Stephen Wands

Further works will be coming forward next year subject to available Scottish Government Play Parks Renewal Funding

Feedback

The team would welcome any comments or suggestions you would like to make on their web pages and suggestions for improvement. Contact Steve Wands to share your views.

Meet the Amenity Services Play Squad

Updated East Lothian Way

Recently the Council Management Team approved a revised version of the East Lothian Way. You can now access this on the intranet directly from the home page.

What is the East Lothian Way?

The East Lothian Way describes the values and behaviours that as employees we are actively encouraged to demonstrate.

What changes have been made?

Recognising that we work with a wide range of people in the community and our commitment to being Trauma Informed and Responsive, one of the key behaviours is now Person-Centred: "We put our customers and the people we work with at the heart of everything we do."

People managers

Leadership behaviours for people managers are also included. Managers play a significant role in influencing our wellbeing and effectiveness. It is important managers know what is expected of them in this role. An example is below.

How does this help me?

The East Lothian Way helps us to be clear about what behaviours are expected of us and our managers at work.  This is particularly helpful for new employees and managers. 

It is also a guide for us all (no matter how long we have been in East Lothian Council) about what behaviours help us to work effectively together and to give positive feedback to colleagues. 

Sometimes we may be having difficulties with colleagues or our manager. If we know what is acceptable and what is not, it makes it easier to raise issues or give feedback before they become more significant or harder to resolve.

Further information

CONTACT INFORMATION

Celebrating 30 years of community engagement with Port Seton Centre

Port Seton Centre was officially opened on the 26th August 1994 by local artist John Bellany. The Centre has been at the heart of the community for 30 years with many families having fond memories of their time in the Funshine Club (Kids holiday programme), tea dances and other activities. As time has passed centre has become a hive of activity for those looking to take part in their community. Many clubs/groups have come and gone from the centre but many of the faces remain the same. Eileen Brown, Community Development Assistant has worked in the Centre since it opened and alongside other staff and the Centre’s Management Committee, has been at the heart of planning the 30th celebration.

The programme of celebratory events took place over the last weeks including football tournaments, tea dance (pictured above) a ceilidh for the community, a special stay and play session for young families and a huge 30th celebration including local singers, the Port Seton Community Choir and bringing faces old and new back to the centre to celebrate the occasion.  In addition, the Museum Service collaborated with Cockenzie and Port Seton Community Council to install a painting from the museum collection in the centre café of the harbour in Cockenzie.

Along with supporting the work of Port Seton Centre, the Management Committee support the local community through giving out small grants to local groups and organisations.

Over the years Port Seton Centre Management Committee have listened to the community and helped facilitate many groups, activities, and resources at Port Seton Centre. Recently some of these groups are a Stay and Play for Neurodiverse children, an ASN youth group for Neurodiverse children, an adults dance exercise class, supporting the setup of a female walking football group, and running a community art group to name but a few. 

In the years to come, Port Seton Centre Management Committee is aiming to take on the lease of more areas of the community centre and support the community in the best way possible.