On 29th March, the Community Council held its first Special meeting for several years on the ‘Spaces for People’ (SfP) proposals for Broughton Street & NTBCC’s considered view of the proposals.

Thanks to everyone who took part in this well-attended public meeting – the bumper turnout demonstrated that there was significant interest from both residents and businesses but many were unaware of what was proposed until they saw the NTBCC flyer that was distributed to over 300 households and businesses mostly on Broughton Street and adjacent roads. In addition, several posts were added to the NTBCC website and the @NTBCC twitter feed to highlight the issues and our stance.

The numbers attending the Zoom meeting peaked at around 50 people – we also appreciated the engagement from some local Edinburgh councillors, with a special mention to local councillors, Jo Mowat (City Centre) & Hal Osler (Inverleith) as well as Cllr Susan Webber for joining the discussion. We were also pleased to see in attendance many Broughton Street traders/ businesses, a representative from the ‘Better Broughton’ group as well the director of the Cockburn Association.

There have been many requests for copies of the slides that were presented; here are links covering:

1. Introduction: Mike Birch (5 pages)
2. Commonplace Mapping summary: Simon Holledge (7 pages)
3. NTBCC Vision for Broughton Street: Stephen Hajducki (13 pages)
4. ‘Spaces for People Proposal Broughton St_Canonmills: Peter Williamson (5 pages)
5. NTBCC Response to Spaces for People Proposal: Mike Birch (5 pages)
6. What Happens Next?: Mike Birch
7. How do you make your views known?: Mike Birch

We also highlighted the ongoing consultation regarding the retention of these measures and encouraged attendees to contact their local Councillors and others to express their views and participate in future plans for our community.

In our view, the meeting was very successful in communicating the Spaces for People proposal to the wider community and encouraging discussion. It was also very helpful to hear the views of those attending which may help to shape longer term proposals for Broughton Street.

As well as the above slides, we will very soon be posting an edited summary of the ‘Chat’ from the meeting as part of a précis of the discussions.

Some responses via twitter

• ‘Thanks to @NTBCC for their meeting tonight. Very informative and thinking is similar to many…look forward to hearing more over the coming weeks’ (Broughton St. trader)
• ‘It was very useful, constructive and civil – it would be wonderful to get a set of the slides if they aren’t on the website as there’s useful stuff in there. Thanks again – a model meeting‘ (Edinburgh Councillor)

Following the meeting, we were informed on 12 April that the SfP proposal has been approved by the internal Council committee – the Council Incident Management Team (CIMT) – with minor changes – additional street markings, re-instatement of one loading bay from Broughton Place.

We continue to have a dialogue with the Spaces for People Team on the detailed implementation plans. We are particularly disappointed that the plans have not included any meaningful widening of the pavements where most needed, at the top of Broughton Street.