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I recently helped lead a walking and active travel workshop in East Lammermuir. The workshop was to learn about what walking and wheeling means for the four villages that make up the community. People joined from Spott, Innerwick, Stenton, and Oldhamstocks to represent their communities.
There are 14 new major energy developments taking place in the region. This means community benefits funding will become available. The Community Council recently produced a Local Place Plan which highlighted areas for funding use. One area recognised was active travel improvements. Active travel is making every day journeys using physical activity. This could be walking, wheeling or cycling.
Our Walking Communities team at Walking Scotland is involved to support the community in identifying opportunities for active travel infrastructure.
For the workshop, we took a placemaking approach. This means bringing people together and supporting them to make suggestions on how they can improve their local areas. It’s different from a consultation, where people are often asked to comment on existing plans. With a placemaking approach, there is no existing plan. Instead, people share their views and suggestions and then develop plans.
We heard about local people’s everyday walking and wheeling experiences.
Discussions identified paths that need upgrades, where pavements are too narrow, and areas where traffic makes people feel unsafe. We even uncovered hidden paths that many didn’t know existed. People also suggested where new paths could create recreational walking routes.
What made this event stand out for me was its scale. For much of my career, I’ve focused on one path, one route, or one greenspace project at a time. This workshop felt completely different. We looked at East Lammermuir as a whole, thinking about how all four villages connect. We reflected on how people move around for leisure and everyday functional journeys.
We want to thank everyone that came along to the event. Local people’s input will help shape future decisions for their community. Following the event, we’ll make recommendations to the community with ways they can make the area better for active travel.
Published: 15 December 2025
