Council to vote on axing Braid Estate filters after discovery of new mistake

Councillors will decide on Tuesday afternoon whether to remove traffic filters in the Braid Estate, after another “inaccurate written description” in a council report threatens traffic measures installed in the last five years.

In a report to be discussed at Tuesday afternoon’s Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) sub-committee meeting, officers propose approving the full Greenbank to Meadows Quiet Route – but without filters on Braid Avenue and Hermitage Gardens, and Braid Road after officers raised issues with written descriptions used in statutory notices – which were prepared by the council.

The report has since been updated to include the removal of a filter at Canaan Lane which had also been “incorrectly drafted”, but as with other filters impacted by the “inaccurate” descriptions, were “not identified by officers until after the TEC meeting on 2 April 2026”.

Its position close to the Royal Blind School has caused safety concerns.

But local people were outside the City Chambers on Tuesday lunchtime protesting about the possible removal of the measures.

Ruth Findlay, a local resident said: “I think it’s an absolute disgrace. I think once you remove the modal filters south of Cluny Gardens, council officers have predicted there’ll be 4,000 extra cars driving through residential streets.

“Once you remove the Canaan Lane filter, you provide a straight run for motorists from Buckstone to Holy Corner, avoiding all the main roads, and where do all these extra cars go? – past our primary schools.

“It’s going to be so dangerous, and I think the council should be ashamed of the situation.”

Cllr Chas Booth, a member of the Greens group, said: “The council has messed up. I’m intensely frustrated. I know that many actual council officers that have been involved in the process are intensely frustrated.

“We apparently now have three errors, which it appears might lead to the ripping out of vital measures that will keep our kids safe from when they’re walking and cycling to school. That’s a completely unacceptable situation to be in.

“I know that many of my Green councilor colleagues share that frustration. We will after today’s decision, whatever today’s decision is, we will be pursuing how on earth we got to this situation and how we can ensure that in future, our kids protection and their safety.

“Walking and cycling to school is the foremost priority. I would also add that I think this, this whole scenario underlines how unfit for purpose, the legal processes around modal filters and things that keep our kids safe, we’ve got a bunch of new colleagues down the road at Holyrood. My message to them will be, you need to sort out the Traffic Regulation Orders process. It is not fit for purpose. And the report that is before this committee today proves that.”

Beth has two children at James Gillespie’s Primary School. She said: “I’ve got two children at James Gillespie’s Primary School, and we have had that filter in place outside the school since Covid, and it’s been absolutely amazing.

“The difference it has made to safety for the kids! My kids have started cycling to school, and I feel happy with them doing that now, whereas previously, I don’t think I would have said the same thing.

“I really, really want that filter to stay in place, and I think that most of the parents probably feel the same as me.

“A lot of them don’t know the difference, because they’ve never had traffic coming through before. But when my young, my eldest child, started with school, it was a nightmare, and it wasn’t safe, and it made people reluctant to allow their kids walk to school by themselves. But now it’s completely different, and it’s so much safer.”

Ross Crook said to Deadline News: “My name is Ross Crook. I run the bike clubs at various schools around the Meadows and holiday camps. I’m just really passionate that kids can be active and independent, and it’s a great help having safe routes, because the children then have the ability to feel confident and brave enough to go out and exercise on the way to school.

“And if we enable them to do that, there’s always knock on benefits of them being able to behave better in class, because that’s what kids are designed to do, is actually use their energy, you know, before they’re sitting still in class.

“So although I enjoy race cycling, my main passion is helping everyone actually be able to cycle.”

Cllr Ben Parker, who represents Morningside, said: “The latest revelation that, because of a further Council blunder, another modal filter on the Quiet Route is not going to be made permanent at TRO sub-committee this week absolutely beggars belief. The filter at Canaan Lane, right outside the Royal Blind School, is an important feature which reduces traffic and keeps vulnerable road users safe.

“This filter’s key location at the centre of the whole route means it is of key strategic importance and for it to be removed is to effectively cut the route in two. There is no other way for people walking, wheeling or cycling to travel safely from the south of Morningside ward to the city centre and it is a travesty that this popular, inexpensive and important filter is set to be removed.

“Green Councillors will continue to press Council officers and other political parties to put right what has gone so very badly wrong here.”

Deadline News advised that Councillors Dan Heap and Alex Staniforth will be the only Green group councillors to take part in the vote due to not having already commented in public on the matter. Cllr Heap was being trained on Tuesday morning to enable him to take part.

The TRO sub-committee is different to other committees and sub-committees at the City of Edinburgh Council as it is a quasi-judicial committee.

The Quiet Route (ETRO/21/29D since 2024) is a set of traffic calming measures which were first installed during the Covid-19 pandemic as part of an active travel scheme funded by the UK Government called Places for People. These included a network of filters from Braid Road to Bruntsfield Links at James Gillespie’s Primary School and other nearby streets.

Traffic calming measures in the Braid Estate have been talked about a great deal. In June 2023, the Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) decided that the Braid Road, Comiston Road and Greenbank to Meadows Quiet Connection schemes should be placed into separate, scheme-specific, ETROs.

In March 2024, The City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) voted to dismantle traffic filters on the Braid Estate and install segregated cycle lanes – but the plans were not implemented.

Further controversy ensued when two councillors who took part in the design of the options considered and subsequently the vote, were censured by the Standards Commission in March 2026 for failing to declare an interest at the meeting. The Standards Commission said that due to living in the vicinity of the proposed route, the pair should have made their positions clear.

The Standards Commission deemed Cllr Munro and Cllr Ross to be in breach of the Councillors’ code of conduct by failing to do so.

In April, the TEC decided to proceed with forwarding the decision to the sub-committee.

A spokesperson for cycling campaign edi.bike said: “We’re disheartened that officers continue to recommend reintroducing through-traffic on a vital corridor for safe cycling, walking and wheeling – particularly as we don’t believe there is a legal requirement for this particular filter’s removal.

“The TRO sub-committee has the power to amend restrictions moving from ETRO to permanent order if their amendments make the restrictions less stringent or onerous. 

“On Canaan Lane, the legal wording prohibits vehicle movement for 32 metres between the exit to the Royal Blind School and 51 Canaan Lane – and the implementation trialled is for a mere 1.5m of prohibition at the same location to provide a pair of planters that act as a modal filter.

“This northbound section of Canaan Lane is a quiet, narrow street with private residences and the Royal Blind School compound. Officers should be using the remit of the TRO sub-committee to fix yet another mistake in the legal orders for this route rather than trying to re-introduce vehicles here – just round the corner from two schools on the same road.”

Braid Estate Safety First, which supports the Quiet Route but not in its current form, said that they “have consistently supported the measures on Canaan Lane, particularly given the close proximity to local schools.”  

“The error there appears to be one of placement of the restriction, but with it having the same overall effect as drafted.

“This is distinguishable from the fundamental flaws with the Cluny Drive filters, where the effect of the implemented layout is wholly different to what is authorised and has created multiple dangers elsewhere.  

“We hope that suitable safety measures can be accommodated at Canaan Lane going forward.”

This article is provided by the news agency Deadline News Limited and published here with permission. 

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