The members of the quasi judicial Traffic Regulation Orders Sub-Committee meet on Tuesday to determine the remaining parts of the Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) and whether to make them permanent.
The scheme in Leith has been more broadly received than others in East Craigs and in Corstorphine – where a bus gate camera was vandalised and then the sub-committee then decided to remove it. Supporters of the scheme have been invited to convene at the City Chambers from 8.30 to show their support by various active travel groups.
In all its various plans for active travel and city mobility the council aims to reduce dependency on cars and encourage those who can to use public transport or active travel. LTN arrangements are regarded as just one way of persuading people to change their behaviour.
An LTN is not entirely new. One of the older Edinburgh schemes is in Moray Place where bollards were introduced decades ago to stop traffic from the West End using that part of the New Town as a short cut to Stockbridge. There are other examples put in place over the years, but now the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process allows for consultation and invites the public’s views before any orders can be put into effect. There has been consultation on the TRO put in place to govern road realignment in Leith and this will expire on 8 April unless the remaining parts are approved on Tuesday.
The sub committee papers issued during this last week contain a proposed change to the bus gate which is a part of the scheme. The committee is recommended to make the change – which will then require a separate and new TRO with a new consultation. This appears to be the remaining issue. Other details such as the benches and planters on Sandport Bridge have already been made permanent fixtures.
It is recommended that councillors implement a new bus lane or gate further east on Links Gardens, revoking current restrictions on Links Place and introducing new two-way restrictions (making it bus, taxi and cycles only) on Links Gardens on the route of the number 34 bus. The council officers say this will reduce additional traffic through Salamander Place and “contribute to the overall objectives of the scheme”. If any traffic moves to John’s Place or Duncan Place then the council might later consider speed humps, raised or zebra crossings. The new bus gate scheme will cost up to £200,000 which will be paid for from allocated funds in the council’s capital budget.
Leith Links Community Council said that this would be a re-introduction of the situation implemented by Places for People blocking of Links Gardens during the Covid period. They said that this “was massively unpopular because it caused huge increases in traffic and congestion all along Claremont Park, Gladstone Place, East Hermitage Place, Hermitage Place, Vanburgh Place and the junction with Lochend Road / Easter Road / Duke Street, and all along Duke Street and Great Junction Street. This is something that would have a huge effect on the lives of all who live in the Leith Links Area.”
The council conducted three waves of market research, the third of which found that around three quarters of those asked were in favour of the provisions of Leith Connections up from an initial 60%, but the community council also carried out their own survey of around 350 people to gather local views. The community council said they felt the community was more evenly divided and queried the council’s survey results. Their own survey has however also been queried and criticised as “biased” by the Chair of Liveable Leith.
When she appeared at the recent Transport and Environment Committee, Sally Millar of the community council said that there was broad consensus that the bus gate should be discarded. She said: “No bus goes through there anyway, and the closure to westbound traffic causes undesirable traffic increases on Duncan Place and it has also unnecessarily caused a new rat run through narrow residential streets nearby.”
However, Rachael Revesv who is chair of the newly constituted group Liveable Leith said that the bus gate was very successful. She said: “The TRO sub committee will be focusing on a small number of measures within the scheme. So a lot of them are already permanent, actually, things like the Sandport bridge and Coburg Street, but the small number of measures relate more to John’s Place and cycling around the shore and the bus gate, which, in my view, has been a successful modal filter, even if buses are not currently using it.”
Their views are included in the videos attached to the three Bluesky posts embedded below.
The objections to the scheme are documented in the committee papers – including comments such as – “this is a waste of money”, the TRO “process is flawed”, general opposition to the changes to traffic operations, the project has increased traffic, pollution and speed on streets. These have all been answered by the council using evidence from their surveys. In the case of allegations of speed increases for example the council said that speed surveys show an overall reduction in vehicle speeds. Read from page 7 in the document embedded below for examples of other objections.
It is now up to the councillors on the sub-committee to pull all the views together and make up their minds when they meet. The meeting will be webcast – all details are here.
Leith Connections – one of the “best changes in Leith for a while” says Rachael Revesz Chair of Liveable Leith The Traffic Regulation orders Sub Committee will consider making all remaining parts permanent when it meets on Tuesday
— The Edinburgh Reporter (@edinreporter.bsky.social) 18 February 2025 at 07:14
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Model for others
Ahead of today’s meeting the SNP, Labour and Green councillors for Leith co-hosted a fact-finding walkabout of Leith Connections with 14 people attending including some from outside of Leith. All wanted to learn more about the group Liveable Leith and hear about the traffic measures.
The walkabout was led by Barbara Kerr from Leith Links Community Council and Miles Wilkinson, lead council officer on the project. Also on hand to give community perspectives Jo McClelland from Leith Primary Parents Council, Rachael Revesz from Liveable Leith and representatives from Leith Links Activity Park.
Chas Booth, Green councillor for Leith, who co-hosted the event, said: “This was very much a fact-finding visit and an opportunity for those outside of Leith to hear about the project and to see it for themselves. I’m acutely aware that, while I am personally a massive fan of the project, not everyone sees it that way. So it was good to have community voices present who have not been entirely supportive of every aspect of the changes, and to hear some challenging questions.
“It’s also vital that if the council is to meet its targets on cutting climate emissions and car kms travelled, we learn from projects like this and ensure we do them even better next time. I hope this walkabout was a useful event for all those who attended, and will help inspire and inform action to create more liveable streets elsewhere.”
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/leithconnections
The Traffic Regulation Orders Sub-Committee members: Councillor Margaret Arma Graham (Convener), Councillor James Dalgleish, Councillor Sanne Dijkstra-Downie, Councillor Fiona Glasgow, Councillor Tim Jones, Councillor Kevin Lang, Councillor Lesley Macinnes, Councillor Kayleigh O’Neill and Councillor Norman Work.
Transport and Environment Committee members (some councillors are members of both):
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
