Tuesday August 18th 2026
Artist's impression of how new M&S would look at Spott Road, Dunbar (pic courtesy ELC planning portal)
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Plans to open East Lothian’s first Marks & Spencer in three new retail units on the edge of Dunbar have been given the go ahead amid claims local residents are “gagging for it”.
Excitement at the proposals which will bring M&S, B&M and Lidl to the retail park off the A1 was mentioned by local councillors as they urged the council’s planning committee to give it the go ahead.
However they did acknowledge concerns about the impact on town centre traders agreeing to add a condition that the new stores will promote other businesses and attractions in the town centre once they are open for business.
Representatives for applicants East Oakwood Developments, who believe the three new retail units will help stem an estimated leak of more than £16million of money spent by local outside of Dunbar by offering more choices, said they were committed to helping promote the town centre.
In their supporting statement to the council the developers argued that Dunbar suffers significantly from leakage.
It said £16.2m which equates to 37% of local expenditure goes elsewhere with most spent in nearby marketing town Haddington and the remainder going to North Berwick.
They argued the addition of the new stores will draw trade not just from Dunbar itself but also from North Berwick and Haddington with the M&S food store an added attraction for shoppers from surrounding communities.
Dunbar Community Council did not object to the application for the new stores but did raise concern about the impact on the roads into the site, which already have an Asda, garden centre, McDonalds and Costa.
They called for signs to be included promoting the town centre pointing out that future plans to introduce parking charges in Dunbar had sparked concern about the impact on local traders.
They also called for action to be taken to protect ground nesting birds on the site where the new stores are to be built, currently agricultural land, and possible flooding issues stemming from pipe work.
Councillor Norman Hampshire, planning convenor and local ward councillor, said the council had invested a lot into Dunbar town centre over the years and he believed the new retail stores would bring more people into the town.
He said: “I am fully behind this and I hope it is delivered quickly.”
Councillor Donna Collins, who moved a motion for a condition insisting on promotion of town centre traders and attractions in the new stores, said: “The most frequent question I am asked is ‘when are we getting B&M’ , ‘when are we getting M&S’ and ‘when are we getting Lidl’.
“The people of Dunbar are gagging for this.”
Fellow councillor Liz Allan, who represents North Berwick coastal ward said: “This site will be a real asset and a lot of people are really looking forward to it as long as it does not come with a cost to the high street.”
She added she remained concerned about the impact of parking charges, which have already been introduced in North Berwick and are proposed to come into Dunbar in the future as part of the council’s ongoing parking management strategy.
The committee unanimously approved the application for the new retail units off Spott Road, with the additional condition it promotes the town centre.
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