North Berwick
In 1958, North Berwick Town Council installed electric street lighting for the first time, under the supervision of burgh surveyor James Dalgleish. This meant the services of Joe Armstrong the 'lamp-lighter' were no longer required, but he continued as 'town-crier' on official occasions. Two of the original decorative lamp standards presented to the town by the gas company in 1905, with the burgh coat of arms engraved on the glass, still exist. One lamp was erected at the foot of the stairs leading to the council chambers and the other until 1975 was outside the provost's residence. This was traditionally moved each time a new provost was elected.
For the new electric lighting system the town council decided to use warm white fluorescent light rather than the more efficient and economical sodium filament. The fluorescent light gave a pleasing warm glow and was so popular with residents and tourists that the street lighting was switched on during the summer evenings. The town was unique in East Lothian in using this system and the town council continued to maintain the street lighting until 1975, when Lothian Region Transportation Department took over operations and standardised the system to sodium lighting. The Ferrygate Gas Works closed in 1972, when the town's gas supply was produced at Granton.
Domestic waste was collected in two separate metal containers, food leftovers and household refuse. The food waste was fed to the pigs at the Rhodes farm, a very profitable venture which reduced the rates. The town council purchased Rhodes farm in the 1940s and used the outbuildings as workshops and stabling for a pair of sturdy Clydesdale horses, which were in regular use until the early 1960s. The agricultural land on the Rhodes farm was rented out, new council houses built forming Lime Grove, and a pig farm established on ground where later the Burgh Caravan Site was laid out, now Rhodes Park. The household refuse was deposited in the former lime quarry at the Rhodes farm.