Beach cycle parking, new paths and ebike hire schemes are among the success stories of East Lothian’s Spaces for People efforts to make town centres and local life safer during the pandemic.
A final report on the work carried out with more than £1 million of government funding to slow down speed on the roads and create more space for shopping, exercise and at schools will be presented to councillors next week.
It reveals the work which officers hope will be made permanent as well as the projects which were unable to go forward and have been shelved or delayed.
And it admits some communities who were consulted with over proposed schemes have been left disappointed as plans fell through.
The report says delays caused by consulting the public meant the council was vying with other local authorities for contractors to carry out the work.
It says: “Other schemes took longer to design and agree with communities and, as other local authorities across the country were working along the same lines, materials and contractor resource were scarce.
“Ultimately, the restricted circumstances and the lack of available contractors meant that a number of fully-designed schemes could not be implemented in the available timescale.
“A number of communities were disappointed, notably Dunbar and Prestonpans where members of the public had devoted time and energy into developing and supporting the schemes.
“In the case of Prestonpans we were subsequently able to install the desired speed cushions by taking advantage of resurfacing work which was being undertaken in the summer of 2021.”
Among schemes which did not go ahead and have been shelved were plans to ban a right hand turn at the Court Street junction in Haddington which proved controversial, cycle lanes in Musselburgh and Tranent and a raised table to reduce speed on East Road, North Berwick.
The report added plans to extend the ebike scheme, which was introduced in Musselburgh stalled after the supplier was unable to provide bikes within the timescale but is now being looked at again with the council currently advertising for a new supplier.
A meeting of the council’s Labour administration cabinet will be asked to approve projects which were brought in as a temporary measures as permanent including new cycle parking at beaches and other attractions, retiming of pedestrian crossings to stop crowds gathering and new speed limits.
They are also asked to make a segregated footpath created between Cockenzie and Prestonpans permanent along with a widened footpath at Countess Road, Dunbar and new path at Hallhill, Dunbar and the ebike hire scheme.
They will also be asked to make 20pmh zones introduced during Spaces for People permanent.
Councillors will be told that officers spent just over £1million of a £1.3million grant paid by Sustrans on behalf of the Scottish Government for the Spaces for People project with some of the funds left carried over to support making the successful interventions permanent.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
