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by Kirsteen Paterson
31 January 2025
Council 'can't do it all without the cash'

Councillor Cher Cassini with colleague Ruaridh Bennett at Musselburgh Festival | Alamy

Council 'can't do it all without the cash'

East Lothian councillor Cher Cassini of the SNP on the case for investing in Musselburgh

Describe the area you represent in one sentence.
Diverse and interesting.

How long have you lived there? 
For 19 and a half years. I’d lived in Gorgie and got married and the place was far too small for the two of us, and we were looking for a new place. I hadn’t thought of being outside Edinburgh, but then we came out and I walked into the house and thought ‘this is my home’. It took me by surprise. I very quickly knew I’d made the right decision. 

Tell us something we won’t know about your local area. 
There’s an astonishing and really very strong Christian movement. It’s a mix of churches. I go to the Living Room Church, and we outgrew our own building so the Miners’ Welfare let us hold our services in their larger building every Sunday. I really think Jesus would approve. People in the local churches are working together and a lot of people don’t realise that is going on, or how much is going on. We have a lot of inspirational young people living here and getting involved.

Who is the best-known person from your area? 
Worthies are great, but I’m more interested in the people who are making a difference in the community, and we’re really blessed in that. 

What challenges are unique to your particular part of the country? 
We can’t do it all without the cash – we really need more investment and more to do for young people. We need an investor or an entrepreneur from the local area who is willing to do a [Richard] Branson and invest in the children. What we need is for people to work with the council and invest in helping young people. It’s much more difficult to catch them when they are older, you need to catch them young. Of course, the Scottish Government spends an awful lot of money on mitigating UK Government policy. If we didn’t have to do that, the money would be better spent on other things.

What made you stand for election? 
I’d previously been a union rep with Unite, where I got brilliant training in negotiating and equalities. Suddenly my husband Peter died when he was only 54 and I was absolutely knocked for six. It was a heart attack, with no warning. I realised I couldn’t work in the quite stressful job I had, and I took early retirement and got involved in an organisation called Safe Families. My husband had gone to school with the outgoing councillor, who knew me and said he thought I’d make a good councillor. I didn’t think for a moment I’d win, and I won by a landslide. My group is quite tight, quite friendly.

What’s the one thing Holyrood politicians could do that would be of greatest benefit to the area you represent?
Have a look at the agreement on green electricity, because it’s quite difficult for us to turn down an application; we have to have very, very strong reasons and even then, it can be overturned. Onshore turbines go on agricultural and rural land. I’d like Scottish ministers to get a better deal that means East Lothian doesn’t have to house any more of that stuff – I think we’ve done our bit. The people housing these things should reap the benefits of housing them, with improvements in infrastructure.

What’s the best bit about living where you do? 
I love it – right on my doorstep I’ve got the seaside, hills and a lot of green space. 

Is there a particular word you love using that only people in your part of the country would recognise?
Because of our diversity we have a number of words used and it’s different in each wee town.

If you could live anywhere else, where would it be?
My father-in-law is from Italy – a wee place called Perinaldo –  but I don’t know if I could live anywhere but Scotland, so perhaps Iona because of the peace of it there. It was my mum’s favourite place.

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