Dunbar and District sits within the beautiful, easternmost part of East Lothian with the John Muir Country Park to the north, the Lammermuir Hills to the south, Traprain Law to the west, and Thorntonloch to the east.
At Sustaining Dunbar, we believe this wonderful landscape should be home to thriving people, where nature flourishes on the land and in the sea, where we live, work and play in ways that respect the wellbeing of all people, and the health of the whole planet.
Dunbar and East Linton is and has always been a community-minded place with a fiercely responsible get-it-done attitude to solving problems for local people, by local people. This resilience has been put to the test during the pandemic, and multiple community-led initiatives have risen to this huge challenge, proactively and with agility.
This is a practical example of the strong, resilient communities that we will increasingly need as government provision is constrained and as society is impacted by the long-term effects of COVID-19. Such communities will also be best placed to respond to local impacts of global crises including economic disruption, climate crisis and ecological destruction.
At the heart of everything we do is a commitment to caring for the environment and making our towns and villages a better, safer and fairer place for all, now and in the future.
Sustaining Dunbar is proud to be a Community Development Trust in a community full of passionate people. We will continue to support, enable, and empower our community wherever possible to ensure the aspirations, aims and objectives are achieved. We started out on a journey around a year ago to build a partner network to "build back better". We are delighted to present this report, which shares the findings of our incredible 'What If?' journey so far and takes us to the next part of our journey, 'What Next?'
You may be an organisation or perhaps a project leader or champion, who might assist with an existing project or have the ability and capacity to lead on one of the proposed projects - all deemed to be worthy of further development by you, our community.
You might be a funder, a political leader or a local authority officer, with the scope to support a particular project. You may simply enjoy reading the information provided and be as astounded, as we are, at the huge amount of activity under the realm of our partner networks.
This report is a working and reference document. A document that can be visited at the readers leisure. It will develop and evolve or be adapted to meet changing priorities. For now, it presents a wonderful picture of our successful journey so far. We welcome your views on how Sustaining Dunbar can continue to support our networks as our exciting journey continues.
Jo McNamara
Chair - Sustaining Dunbar, June 2021
Dunbar and District, Ward 6 within the East Lothian Council multi‐member ward system, is situated at the eastern end of East Lothian. It is geographically one of the largest wards in East Lothian. It includes the towns of Dunbar and East Linton and the villages of Tyninghame, West Barns, Stenton, Spott, Innerwick, Oldhamstocks and Whittinghame, and a number of other small settlements.
On 30 June 2019, the population of East Lothian was 107,090. This is an increase of 1.2% from 105,790 in 2018. Over the same period, the population of Scotland increased by 0.5%.
Between 2018 and 2028, the population of East Lothian is projected to increase from 105,790 to 113,403, an increase of 7.2%.