Local Labour activists have stepped up the party’s campaign against the SNP Government’s call-in of the substation planning application at the former Cockenzie power station site.

Led by Iain Gray MSP and Martin Whitfield MP, and including Cllr Willie Innes and Cllr Fiona O’Donnell, the campaigners convened on the site to demonstrate Labour’s ongoing opposition to the call-in.

They then collected more signatures for the party’s Hands off Cockenzie petition urging SNP ministers to reverse the call-in, pushing the total up to over 1,000 signatories.

Iain Gray MSP said:

“It’s just over a month since the SNP announced the decision to call in the substation application. But as we collected more petition signatures it was clear that, far from having subsided in the weeks since it was announced, the anger felt by many local residents remains high.

“Having passed 1,000 signatures, we will soon submit the petition to planning minister Kevin Stewart and urge him to do the right thing and return the decision to local councillors and communities.”

Martin Whitfield MP said:

“As we took our campaign out to the streets, many more local people said they agreed with us that decisions on the former power station site’s future should be made in East Lothian.

“Communities here are fed up with the high-handed and undemocratic way the SNP Government treats our county. It’s time for the SNP to respect local decision-making and let East Lothian decide.”