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.
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We have recently been advised that the Council will be undertaking work on Dundas Street between Great King Street and Henderson Row that will require partial road closures on Fettes Row and Cumberland Street at their junctions with Dundas Street. There will also be restrictions to parking and loading on several streets in the area. A temporary TRO is in place until February 2024, but all the traffic restrictions will not be in effect for the full period of the order.
As well as relaying the paving slabs on Dundas Street, a new cycle rack will be installed near the Tesco Express and new pedestrian crossings will be created across some of the side streets along Dundas Street. This work will be undertaken during the day on weekdays and on Saturday mornings, if required. It is due to start immediately and will be phased over the next 16 weeks.
Local residents and businesses have been advised by letter of the planned works and restrictions. A copy of that letter can be found here. Please note that there is an error in the section describing Phase 5 of the planned work. It should read West footway rather than East footway.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at www.ntbcc.org.uk or Martin Watson who is the assigned Project Manager for this work at Edinburgh Council at Martin.Watson@edinburgh.gov.uk.
Regarding the planned introduction of one-way traffic restrictions at Canonmills and the associated work to the carriageway and footpaths in the area, we have received the following updates (in italics below) from the Council’s Roads department with our comments following:
o The start has been put back a week till 12 June to give proper consideration to the proposals put forward by the Contractor and make sure that what will be in place works. Hopefully, this will also allow information about the work and traffic management to be better communicated to residents and businesses in the area.
o Traffic management will now not be placed on street till 7pm. The restriction to one-way traffic (northbound only) on Canonmills will therefore operate from 7.00pm until 6.30am (Monday to Friday). Traffic will be able to use Canonmills in both directions outside these times. There is some question whether Saturday morning work is also planned, and we will seek clarification on this point.
o In terms of noise, milling and jackhammering should cease at 11pm but work will continue until the Contractor is finished the laying operation which will be into the small hours. This will not be noise free. Apologies in advance, but there is no way to avoid this. We will continue to lobby the local Councillors to restrict the hours noisy work is undertaken to limit the impact on residents and for noise monitoring to be undertaken during the work.
o As the nature of the streets surrounding are predominately residential and in the New Town, there are no plans to sign a specific diversion route as there are numerous routes that can be taken and avoid the funnelling of traffic along one particular route. The bus drivers will know what route they have been advised to take. While we agree that there are multiple routes that could be used, we are concerned that there will be an increase in traffic at night along residential routes by all vehicles including buses and HGV. We will be lobbying our local Councillors to seek additional monitoring of traffic volumes along these diversions. We will also seek clarity about which routes the bus drivers have been told to take.
o As Warriston Road will be closed at times to surface the junction then the only access to that part of Warriston Road is via Logie Green Road. That section of Warriston Road is one-way, hence the suspension of the order. It is also narrow so parking will be suspended and temporary lights will be in place to control traffic. Although this is necessary for a short time to allow residents access, given the narrowness of the road to the east, appropriate and clear signage needs to be in place and caution exercised by all road users.
If you live in this area or use Canonmills to travel into or out of the City Centre and have any questions or concerns about this work and the planned traffic management, please let us know using the Contact page.
NTBCC became aware of a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) TEMP/23/127, recently posted on Edinburgh Council’s website, which had already been approved by delegated authority, to facilitate carriageway and footway resurfacing works covering part of the southern section of Inverleith Row, Huntly Street, Canonmills, Brandon Street and Brandon Terrace. In addition, an area of footway from Warriston Crescent to the Canonmills junction is also included within the scope of works.
On further examination of the details of TEMP/23/127, which is drafted in none-to-helpful legal terms, it also states that a one way restriction would be in place covering Canonmills & Huntley street in their entirety such that north-south travel would not be permitted between 18:30 to 6:30. The duration of the TTRO is stated as being 1 June to 31 October (i.e. for 20+ weeks).
The order also states that the alternative route for through vehicular traffic with respect to the one-way restrictions on Canonmills and Huntly Street will be by way of Brandon Terrace, Brandon Street, Dundas
Street, Great King Street, Drummond Place, London Street, Mansfield Place, Bellevue Place and Rodney Street. It isn’t entirely clear from the approved order whether this restriction would be in place throughout the period.