Original PDF: NTBCC Engagement Report 2022-06-11
From an email received by the New Town & Broughton Community Council on 21st February from Chris McGarvey, Senior Project Manager Transport, Place Development, City of Edinburgh Council
Existing Layout:
At the East end of Princes Street a bus lane/gate is currently in operation between the hours of 8:30am to 6:30pm. All other Spaces for People measures have been removed from this location.
Issues:
Due to the additional pressures being experienced on the network as a result of tram works and North Bridge refurbishment works our partners in Police Scotland, Lothian Buses, Edinburgh Trams and private hire operators have requested that the bus lane/gate on Princes Street is removed. This request has been made through the Tram Traffic Management Review Panel, the Citywide Traffic Management Group and other forums where we share knowledge and experience of using and managing the network with valued stakeholders.
The removal of the bus lane/gate will allow traffic to enter Princes Street and turn right into South St David Street to continue their journey. Lothian Buses have advised that this will relieve some of the pressures their services are experiencing on York Place and surrounding streets due to ongoing tram works and associated diversions. It will also allow another option for traffic diverted by the North Bridge refurbishment work.
Edinburgh Trams advise that this change in traffic management will have no impact on their services and traffic will flow much more freely now their services are curtailed at Shandwick Place for two months.
Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, held via Zoom, on Monday 13 December 2021 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
Edinburgh Council has stated that ‘CCs can approve minutes, and take other decisions, remotely’, as so long as they ensure that ‘remote meetings are as accessible to members of the public and (as) well-advertised as possible’. Continue reading
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Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, held via Zoom, on Monday 13 September 2021 at 7pm Continue reading
The following deputation was presented to the Council’s Transport & Environment Committee on 14 October following discussions with local residents and with NTBCC members, along with several other deputations from a wide range of community groups in relation to Agenda Item 7.1 ‘Active Travel Measures – Travelling Safely Update’ .
The community council’s principal concern is continuing lack of engagement in the process of reviewing the various measures introduced under the Spaces for People programme. These schemes have been in place in many cases for over a year and based on previous reports to committee, have been supposedly reviewed several times over that period of time. We have never been approached for comments about implemented schemes in our area. As a Community Council we believe that we can provide useful input from residents and businesses about how these measures are working but there is no process for us to do so. We understand the reasons why some of these schemes were introduced with little consultation but we are struggling to understand the rationale for this continued lack of engagement. We believe that in many cases the choice between retain or remove is too simple. There will be features of even the best scheme where improvement is possible and likewise in schemes scheduled for removal there will be elements that should be retained. We urge the Council to put in place an effective and transparent engagement process that allows for local input to be considered prior to extending/modifying measures under an ETRO or indeed removing measures.
Our second concern is that the temporary measures are not suitable for long-term use. As noted many of the measures have been in place for over a year and if retained under an ETRO (Experimental Traffic Regulation Order) could be in place for around three years. For example, pavements have been extended but nothing has been done to make these areas either suitable or safe for those with mobility issues or visual impairment. From a recent discussion with a local resdient who escorts a blind person to church each week, she described the difficulties now being experienced without proper pavements, lack of tactile paving and the absence of audio signals on temporary crossings. We believe that if measures are to be retained then the design should comply with the Edinburgh Street Design Guidance to ensure that they are fit for purpose.
Overall the NTBCC are broadly supportive of the measures in our area but there are some issues that we would want to highlight.
Below are the reports submitted by the various NTBCC Committee conveners to NTBCC members prior to the October meeting. The key aspects of these reports were part of the Occtober NTBCC meeting but due to time pressures, not all of the content was discussed. The following reports cover Transport, Events (& other topics falling under the Environment Committee e.g. 2030 Climate Strategy) & Planning.
Although the key topics were discussed, there is much additional detail in these reports. If there are issues raised in them that were not covered, please contact us via www.ntbcc.org.uk/contact/ and we will try to respond.
Thse will be included in the Minutes of the meeting – to be published officially in mid November.
N.B. This is a long read (10 minutes+)