Edinburgh businesses band together against council’s “7-7-7” bus lane plans

A group of Edinburgh businesses are banding together in an effort to combat the council’s “7-7-7” bus lane plans.

The City of Edinburgh Council is about to introduce a trial of 12-hour bus lanes from 7am-7pm, seven days a week along the A1 and A199 between Milton Road East and London Road to replace the current 7:30-9:30am and 4-6:30pm restrictions that exist throughout the city.

The Council’s 18-month trial intends to “support bus companies by reducing congestion and delays along key routes”.

However, business owners in the Jock’s Lodge area have warned that the proposed measures could decimate small and independent businesses in the capital.

Nikki Boyd, the florist who runs her business under the name Nikki’s Fleurs, is leading the charge against the plans, saying that the throng of small businesses in the area “are all going to suffer” as a result.

She is joined in her campaign by a host of other businesses on the stretch of road, which covers Hillend Place, Parsons Green Terrace and Wolseley Place.

Proprietors from neighbouring shops such as Shaukat Convenience Store, Mr Hot Potato, The Embroidery Shop and Viva Hair Salon have all added their frustrated voices to Nikki’s calls, explaining that their clients, customers, suppliers and they themselves all rely on the ability to park outside their businesses during opening hours to keep trade ticking over.

Nikki explained: “It’s detrimental to business for passing trade. But I think they’re doing it across quite a lot of Edinburgh, so I think it’s probably a done deal. They have to appease the public but it’s already happening.

“We get flowers delivered any time from 10am to 3pm, so if there’s nowhere for the flower trucks to stop, then we’re not going to have flowers, and we’re not going to have products. We’re not going to be able to trade because we’ve not got the stock available and it’s going to push us under.

“It’s not just that though. When the local school needs a raffle prize or when they need sponsors, they don’t go to Edinburgh Council do they? They go to every single small business and ask them to help. Small businesses are the ones that help – big businesses aren’t interested. We are the ones everyone calls upon.

“All the small retailers [on this street] are all going to come together. We’re going to stand here and we’re going to fight it. I’ve lodged a petition with the Council but I’m still waiting for them to authorise it. I’ve sent Edinburgh Council probably 15 to 20 emails. Not one has been replied to.

“The bus lanes are not what’s causing congestion either. What’s causing the congestion in Edinburgh is all the temporary traffic lights, the road closures and the roadworks that you never see a tradesman working on. It’s having a massive impact on us all.

“They’re introducing all these bus lanes for nothing. They’re just wasting our time and Council time, and for what? Because they want to be eco-friendly? Eco-friendly hasn’t worked.

“This is having a massive effect on our business. We employ staff from the local community, we employ staff from the local community, we keep staff in jobs. You won’t see Marks & Spencer offering a £50 voucher for a raffle, but a small business will.

“Edinburgh Council should be supporting small businesses, but they’re not. They’re trying to shut us all down.

“It’s going to snowball – it’s a massive, massive snowball and Edinburgh Council need to answer, what are the pros for this? There’s 101 cons but what are the pros? That the buses might run on time?

“They’re not getting a 7-7-7 bus lane outside this shop. You mark my words.”

Rashid Ashraf, owner of Mr Hot Potato, which has been providing baked potatoes and food-to-go for hungry workers and passers-by at 12 Wolseley Place for 30 years, said: “The council do what they want to do.

“They sit in their offices and think of all these crazy ideas, but there’s no need for them. They’re killing the city.

“The bus lane times in the morning don’t bother any of us. Fair enough, we agree with that. But the evening ones, from 4pm – nobody stops here between 4pm and 6:30pm, we’ve lost all that trade already.

“I’ve been here nearly 30 years, open from 11am until 8:30pm. Everybody’s going to suffer.”

The owners of Shaukat Convenience Store – which has existed on the street for decades – also echoed these concerns, whilst adding that temporary roadworks outside their store six years previously had heavily affected business at the time, making them heavily dubious over the introduction of permanent restrictions right outside their door.

Michelle Allan, owner of The Embroidery Shop, has been in her location for ten years. She, and the other businesses on the road, received a letter from the Council, explaining the new bus lane trial.

The letter says that the Council plans to start the trial in early October to “help us assess bus journey times and reliability by extending bus hours during the day and introducing them at weekends”.

The letter goes on to say: “To support these extended bus lanen times, we need to change parking and loading restrictions along the route.

“We will use a statutory power called an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) to deliver the trial. This means we can then make changes if we think that would help the scheme work better and then a decision is made by councillors on whether or not we make the new times permanent.”

The letter than adds that during the first six months of the trial, businesses will also be able to share their views, which will “help inform future decisions” before issuing an invite to a business only information event in September.

Michelle said: “We all get customers who park outside. We have customers who come in and they’ll park out there, come in, keep an eye on their car and nip out again. They don’t know what all this means.

“I think that right now it’s really the uncertainty, because the letter doesn’t explain much and it’s telling you to attend a presentation. It’s saying a presentation – not even an open discussion – a presentation.

“As a collective as a street, we feel it will affect us all. I know Nikki had found out that there’s maybe going to be a loading bay, but if there’s only one loading bay, where does that leave us?

“People are saying that people are still going to park but those people are going to get hit with fines and those people are then going to choose not to stop, which will especially affect Rashid’s, with the amount of vans that park to nip into his shop to get their lunch. I think it’s caused a bit of unrest in the street.

“With the amount of businesses that are here, we all rely – generally – on people with cars. It’s a good bus route but not everybody is going to hop on the bus from one end of the town to the other and not everything can be done online.

“We have a lot of face-to-face customers and obviously, Nikki at the florist, her customers like to know what they’re getting when it comes to flower arrangements.

“We’ve all spoke and we’re all in agreement on one, the letter doesn’t tell us much so it’s led to a lot of uncertainty and two, what does it actually mean for us as small businesses, because we rely on people coming with their vehicles to pop into our shops.”

Amid concerns over how businesses will load and unload deliveries, Edinburgh Council appears to have anticipated this in a Transport and Environment Committee meeting in August 2024, where it was divulged that “Loading surveys will be arranged to quantify loading requirements in locations where local exemptions for loading and parking may be permitted to support business (for example at Dalry, Abbeyhill and Jock’s Lodge)”.

Blue Badge holders can park free of charge and without a time limit on-street, including in pay-and-display bays and disabled parking bays, but cannot park in bus lanes during their operational hours, meaning these measures would affect any disabled clientele of the businesses.

Viva Hair Salon owner Lynne McFarlane has called the plans “ridiculous”.

Speaking at length, she said: “I’ve got clients from up on Southside when I used to be based at Hanover Street, so they’ve now got to travel here by car. I’ve got disabled people, I’ve got old people, how are they supposed to get here?

“It’s ridiculous – and it’s seven days a week, so what about the churches? The elderly people are the ones that go to church and they’re not going to be able to park near their churches because [the measures are] on a Sunday as well – seven days a week until 7pm at night.

“Why not just police it properly? Put traffic wardens on to deal with the habitual people that are parking in the bus lanes during their in-use hours.

“I understand it’s frustrating for the bus drivers coming along, but the couple of hours in the morning that they’ve got and the couple hours in the evening, surely that’s all they need?

“Why not put [these measures] at really busy junctions, like the Omni Centre? Do it at the Omni Centre, coming down, because my clients’ biggest problems are coming down and getting stuck at that bus stop, getting stuck at that roundabout because it doesn’t run smoothly. Fix things like that rather than one bus route.

“Michelle next door gets lots of deliveries, they get clothing delivered there, what’s happening then? And Nikki in the florist, she’s saying some of her flower bouquets are five feet. She’s got funeral bouquets and she’s got a Transit van. What is she supposed to do?

“The girl next door to me is trying to let the shop. How is she going to let it if nobody can stop in it and nobody can come here? There’s three barbers on this route. A barber is walk-in trade. How do you have walk-in trade if nobody can come along and get parked?

“What about Meadowbank Stadium – they do dance competitions, they do cheerleading competitions, Hibs Women, Edinburgh City. They all park on the main street on a Saturday.

“Where will people park? Meadowbank Retail Centre? They’re not going to want all the people parking there. They’re already saying no football traffic at any point, so how’s that going to work?

“The Council’s decision has been made though. It’s just like the Save Jock’s Lodge campaign – that decision was made, they were selling that regardless.

“It’s not fair and I think it’s penalising people. Everything seems to be against small businesses.”

The City of Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.