Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, on Monday 14 October 2024 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
URLs have been added by the minutes secretary.
Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, via Zoom, on Monday 9 September 2024 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
URLs have been added by the minutes secretary. Continue reading
Thanks to Councillor Miller, we have been advised that the bus shelter that disappeared from Mansfield Place earlier this month was removed due to safety concerns. A replacement will be installed by the Council as soon as this work can be scheduled, hopefully before the weather deteriorates further.
We are still on the track of the missing benches from Bellevue Terrace/East Claremont Street!
This will be an online meeting : Monday 9 September via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81224803596?pwd=IjzbMuOr017EzHSc4qbeNiv7SzkkbO.1
The parentheses show the time allocated to each item.
Convenors’ reports received so far are below the agenda.
NTBCC Transport & Environment Committee Update – September 2024
Planning ( to be added)
Over the last year, there has been discussion at the Council’s Transport and Environment Committee about continuing subsidies for supported bus services in and around the City. These are services that are deemed to provide an insufficient commercial return for the bus operator and therefore the Council partially funds the cost of these services.
Within our area, we have the number 13 bus service which is operated by Edinburgh Coachlines and runs six days a week between Craigleith Shopping Centre and Lochend with local stops in Princes Street, Hanover Street, Queen Street Gardens East, Dundas Street, Great King Street, Drummond Place,
London Street, Bellevue, Rodney Street, Broughton Road and McDonald Road.
The Council does not have much information about who is using this service, how frequently people are doing so and why this service is used. We have therefore agreed to publish this post to gather some additional data. If you are a user of the number 13 bus service, even on an infrequent basis or know someone that does, please let us know why and how frequently by completing the contact form.
The NTBCC has reiterated its concerns about the continued restrictions to buses and taxis using Waverley Bridge resulting in their relocation to other streets in the City Centre. The decision to relocate buses and taxis from Waverley Bridge was taken as part of the Spaces for People measures introduced over four years ago during the pandemic. The Council has published an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order in order to retain these changes. Today is the last date for comments to be submitted to TRO.Consultations@edinburgh.gov.uk.
The principal concerns we have raised in our objection are the adverse impact on disabled and other passengers with mobility issues, the additional congestion along Waterloo Place and the western end of Regent Road caused by the out of town and tour buses now using these streets and the problems for pedestrians and wheelers as a result of so many buses using so few bus stops along with the narrow pavements.
We recognise that any plans for Waverley Bridge do need to provide a safe means for pedestrians (including passengers) to access the station and move from Princes Street to the Old Town. This, we believe, can be achieved without closing the road to all buses and taxis.
NTBCC’s objection is in this PDF.
NTBCC’s transport convenor today emailed the following objection to these TROs which – if passed – would enable the ‘Meadows to George St’ plans.
Dear Traffic Orders Team
Objection to RSO/21/08 and TRO/21/32
The New Town and Broughton Community Council (NTBCC) has considered the above traffic orders and wishes to object to them for the following reasons:
It is proposed to introduce two one-way cycle lanes on either side of this street between George Street and Princes Street. It was stated that the use of two one-way cycle lanes was to align with the design of George Street but at a George Street and First New Town project briefing last year we were told that the design of Hanover Street had been set by the Meadows to George Street Project. Given the stated intent to introduce consistency in the design of public realm, it would appear that a two way cycle path would reduce pedestrian/cyclist interactions, remove the need for floating bus stops on one side of the street and allow more space to be retained/created for pedestrians.
Given that in the plans there is no route for south bound vehicles (other than buses, taxis, cycles and other traffic wanting to access Market Street) beyond Princes Street, Hanover Street is essentially a dead end for most traffic and therefore the need for traffic to turn around would seem to be an important but overlooked consideration. With the narrowing of the carriageway this will become much more difficult especially for larger commercial vehicles raising serious traffic management and road safety considerations. It is also proposed to reduce the number of bus stops on the street which given the number of services that are using this road will be a counterproductive measure in that it will increase congestion around bus stops. Continue reading