Edinburgh and East Lothian (Marionville, Newcraighall, Musselburgh, Tranent)

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is carrying out a Service Delivery Review to look at ways of reshaping and modernising the organisation. The primary aim is to ensure that resources – staff, stations and appliances – are matched to operational risk and demand across Scotland.

During summer 2025, SFRS consulted on a series of changes involving more than 30 fire stations across Scotland. In Edinburgh and East Lothian this included one option for change involving four fire stations – Marionville, Newcraighall, Musselburgh and Tranent.

In June 2025, a suite of recommendations was presented to the SFRS Board for decision, informed by feedback from communities, staff and stakeholders alongside operational, financial and equality evidence.

The following change was approved for implementation in Edinburgh and East Lothian:

• Proceed to close Musselburgh which has one appliance that is crewed by wholetime firefighters. Move this appliance to a new-build two appliance station at Tranent, with one crewed by wholetime firefighters and one crewed by oncall firefighters; AND introduce additional wholetime Day Shift Duty System (DSDS) resource to support on call capacity in East Lothian and resilience more widely. 
• Do not proceed with the Edinburgh component (Marionville and Newcraighall).

The proposed changes were put forward as part of a 12-week public consultation between June and September 2025. Engagement activity included public meetings and drop-in sessions across affected communities, attended by more than 800 people across Scotland, alongside a public survey which generated more than 3,600 responses.

In Edinburgh and East Lothian, this included:

• Two public meetings held in Craigentinny near Marionville on 2 September 2025. In total there were 69 attendees (19 and 50).
• Two public meetings held in Musselburgh on 9 September 2025. In total there were 14 attendees (9 and 5).
• One drop-in session held in Tranent on 4 September 2025 with 14 attendees.
• One drop-in session held in Newcraighall on 10 September 2025; there were no external attendees.

In East Lothian, Tranent is affected by RAAC and requires urgent repair.

Musselburgh is located too close to Newcraighall to provide an efficient distribution of resources.

Musselburgh is deemed unfit for purpose and would require an expensive upgrade.

We must rebuild Tranent and therefore we could combine Musselburgh and Tranent stations into a single new station on a new site near Tranent. 

This would create a more effective distribution of operational resources to meet risk and demand across East Lothian.

In Edinburgh, Marionville is affected by RAAC and requires urgent repair.

Marionville is deemed too close to McDonald Road station to provide an efficient distribution of operational resources to meet risk and demand across the east of Edinburgh.

It would be very expensive to demolish and rebuild Marionville at its current location.

We could relocate the Marionville wholetime pumping appliance to Newcraighall station to create a more efficient distribution of operational resources.

Newcraighall has received a £2.6 million upgrade and can accommodate a second wholetime appliance from Marionville.

Consultation feedback provided additional information which requires detailed investigation and analysis to determine whether the closure of Marionville and relocation of its wholetime pumping appliance to Newcraighall remains appropriate.  The decision was therefore taken not to proceed with the Edinburgh component of this option.

Pros

• More effective distribution of resources across East Lothian.
• RAAC will be addressed at Tranent.
• Musselburgh site is unsuitable and crew will be relocated to new station.
• The sale of two sites - Musselburgh and Tranent - would provide income to invest in other stations.
• East Lothian receives an additional pumping appliance and about 8 wholetime crew to support on-call and wider regional resilience.

Cons

• There would be a moderate increase in response times within the immediate vicinity of Musselburgh.
• The timing of the Musselburgh closure and the transfer of appliance is reliant on a new build at Tranent.
• £10 million investment required for a new build at Tranent.