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On Monday 7th January, 2005, following East Lothian Council’s planning application for an expansion of the racecourse including an all-weather track, over 100 people gathered in the Woodside Hotel to express their opposition. They included members of the Old Musselburgh Club, the Conservation Society, regular players on the Old Course, and, vitally, a large proportion of ordinary residents of the area. The organisers of the meeting, members of the Ravensheugh Lagoons group, had expected ‘perhaps between thirty and forty’. The turnout surpassed all expectations.
So started the HOOL - Hands Off Our Links - campaign, although the name would not be coined for a few more weeks. A subsequent meeting in the Levenhall Arms elected a committee of eight to take forward the campaign, and this has since met on a regular basis. Two other members were co-opted for their specialised knowledge.
Most rewarding among the features of the original meeting was the comprehensive extra knowledge imparted by those present. Notably, it emerged that, over the years, a number of protests against interference with the Old Course have been made against the council of the time, many of them successful.
All these points have been extremely useful in pushing forward the HOOL campaign. Adding to that some very painstaking work by individual members means that we were very optimistic that there were firm grounds to prevent the application proceeding.
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