Thursday March 26th 2026
The Original Factory Shop in Tranent is due to close its doors next week
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Plans to open a snack van in the car park of a factory outlet store are set to go ahead despite plans to close the shop permanently next week.
East Lothian Council’s planning committee will meet on Tuesday to discuss the application for the mobile van in The Original Factory Shop car park in Tranent.
The shop is due to open for the last time on Wednesday, April 1, after its operators called in the administrators.
Despite the loss of the store council planners are recommending the snack van is give the go ahead , however local councillor Colin McGinn has raised concerns about its impact on town centre footfall and the lack of customer base at the retail centre.
A report to elected members says council policy states that the siting of hot food outlets , including mobile snack vans, will be supported in a designated employment site where it is intended to meet demand from employees of business within the site and not to attract customers from outwith the site.
It also refers to the car park as belonging to the “former Factory Shop retail unit”.
The owners of The Original Factory Shop chain Modella Capital announced they had called in the administrators in January this year with three East Lothian stores in Tranent, Haddington and Dunbar, among 25 across Scotland set to close.
Councillor Colin McGinn called the application for the snack van in to be decided by next week’s committee saying neighbours had raised concerns about its permanent siting in the area where traffic issues exist adding “there are concerns about permanent snack vans sited around the outskirts of towns with no ready customer base; there are also concerns that permanent siting of snack vans will impact upon high street footfall”.
Planners have recommended the van is granted planning permission but are asking councillors to make it a temporary permission of three years to allow them to assess the impact on the area.
They also ask that the permission is restricted to the applicant only and one snack van on the site at any time to avoid ‘over commercialisation’ of the car park.
Councillors will be asked to decide the application next week.
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