Picardy Place is the focus of a couple of bloopers this week in relation to matters which are under the control of the council.
The first is the siting of a lamppost in the centre of the newly surfaced cycle lane – actually two parts of the cycle lane – in the centre of Picardy Place. The council has said it will be moved but this work has to be done when the overhead tram lines nearby are isolated. It is quite unbelievable that nobody questioned the positioning of this lamppost until after it appeared. The public realm works are part of the Trams to Newhaven project which councillors on Thursday questioned if these would be completed as planned by November 2023.
And while we are at it could someone please confirm that this is not the promised planting in the landscaped areas. It looks like weeds to the untrained eye.
The second is not so obvious except to Gaelic speakers. There is a sign on the eastern edge of the central area at Picardy Place which has a typo in it.
This was mentioned by Wilson McLeod on Twitter today and he suggested that the spelling of the word Picardy (spelled ‘Picardaid’ on the sign) would be more correctly ‘Picardaidh’ (or perhaps ‘Phicardaidh’).
This error was lamented by one local councillor who mentioned the matter at Thursday’s Transport and Environment Committee meeting.
Chas Booth, Green councillor for Leith, said: “Scotland’s capital should be celebrating and promoting Scotland’s national languages, so this basic Gaelic language error on a very prominent city centre sign is frankly embarrassing. I have asked council officers to investigate what went wrong here and to rectify the situation as soon as possible. I’ve also asked what the process is to check the Gaelic on new signs before they are installed.
“This issue comes on top of the council failing to install Gaelic signage at tram stops along the extension to Newhaven last year, despite a policy that we should also consider this for new signs. The council needs to get much better at promoting Scotland’s languages, and stop treating Gaelic as an inconvenient afterthought.”
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