We are very excited to announce that the Scottish Land Fund has awarded us a grant to cover 90% of the (£45,000) purchase price for Belhaven Community Garden! They will also be contributing towards other costs including legal fees, some urgent repairs and the future employment of a short-term development worker, totalling a further £24,594…
Category: Blog
My blog.
Categories
Data Centre Concerns
Jo McNamara writes: In late 2025 a newly formed company based in Glasgow, Thistle Sands Data Limited, presented a scoping paper to East Lothian Council outlining a proposal for construction of a massive data centre on a 60 hectare site of prime agricultural land just to the south of the A1, stretching from the Spott…
Categories
Postponed
Given the inclement weather forecast, we are postponing the planned, celebration event to mark the approval of our asset transfer request. This will now take place on Saturday 7th November, 2-4pm at the garden. We’ll hope for better weather then! It will still be an informal, drop-in event and an opportunity to raise a glass and…
At their meeting on Wednesday this week, the NHS Lothian Board unanimously approved our application to purchase Belhaven Community Garden at our valuation of £45,000. Craig Marriott, Finance Director at NHS Lothian, said: “The Board’s approval of the Community Asset Transfer is an important milestone for Belhaven Community Garden and the local community. We are pleased to…
Categories
Summer fun!
Summer News from the Beehive and Beyond! It has been a busy and very exciting few months, with lots happening across our projects. From celebrating our wonderful volunteers and winning awards, to harvesting delicious fruit and vegetables, enjoying teddy bear picnics and even filming a documentary about hedgehogs! Celebrating Our Volunteers First of all, a…
Developing the site Another section of thistles and docks has been cleared on the allotment this winter by our Tuesday adult volunteers. Growing from seed is partly undertaken in the nursery rooms, partly at volunteers’ homes so that we have plenty to plant out on newly prepared plots. In early spring, nursery children helped…
A Proud Day for Dunbar Day Centre Buddies! Volunteer Centre East Lothian hosted a wonderful celebration of volunteering, and little did we know that all the teams and individuals who made the shortlist were winners!Our young volunteers had a fantastic afternoon hearing about the incredible work being carried out across East Lothian. It would have…
Categories
Give a hog a home
The Dunbar Community Shed are now taking orders for producing hedgehog houses made right on your doorstep. These houses were designed in partnership with Sustaining Dunbar’s Pledgehog Project and are made in a more environmentally friendly way by using recycled heat treated pallets and painted on the outside with eco friendly non toxic wood preservative.…
Appeal for financial pledges NHS Lothian are currently evaluating our request to purchase Belhaven Community Garden so that it is protected in the long term for the benefit of everyone living in the local area. We expect to hear their decision in July. In the meantime, we are busy preparing an application to the Scottish Land…
Categories
Meet the Bees
Saturday, 23rd May, 10am-1pm, Belhaven Community Garden A free workshop on honey bees and natural beekeeping. Spend a morning with the honey-bees. We will gather around the garden’s top-bar hives, observe life at the hive entrance, open a hive and learn more about honey-bee ecology, behaviour and low intervention, natural beekeeping. For anyone curious about…