Low Traffic Neighbourhood is not going anywhere for now

Since the council first agreed on 14 May to introduce some active travel schemes (including the East Craigs Low Traffic Neighbourhood or LTN) there has been much discussion, and many words, both angry and considered, exchanged both at council meetings and in print over some of these proposals.

In East Craigs, the group which opposes the LTN is Get Edinburgh Moving (GEM). Their principal, David Hunter, quoted extensively from the legal opinion which he or the group paid for in written deputations made to various council meetings in recent months. The advocate who penned the opinion is unnamed, and the opinion has not been published in full, but what has been issued appears enough to stop the council in its tracks. The Transport Convener proposed a delay of a month to consider legal advice to the council.

The question turns on whether the LTN is an answer to a public danger (Covid-19) to make ways of getting about safer for residents as envisaged by the government funding. It is clearly a project that the council had on its clipboard before the pandemic began, and it is the view of the lawyer engaged by GEM that it oversteps the mark. The Edinburgh Reporter understands that the legal advice obtained by the council accords with that view.

When the Transport Committee meet on 12 November it is likely that rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, there will be some compromise solution. One of those might be to introduce some elements of the complete scheme under individual TTROs such as the bus gate on Maybury Road. This area is poorly served by public transport most of which skirts around it rather than through it, with only the number 31 feeding into Bughtlin to the north of the area. The secondary school on Craigs Road is not directly served by any bus service, and to the south of the school there are steps making it inaccessible to those in wheelchairs, or with buggies.

There is a proposal that rather than resort to Traffic Regulation Orders - some of which take years to implement - there could be some alternative form of Emergency Traffic Orders.

This is a community lying between Maybury Road, Glasgow Road and Drum Brae. It is largely an area of houses with driveways, and it is a community quite heavily dependent on the car.

It is worth remembering where this began. The purpose of the Covid-19 emergency funding provided by The Scottish Government (and Edinburgh was awarded £5 million of the initial £10 million) was to increase opportunities for active travel. Transport Secretary

Michael Matheson said: "The fund is specifically for creation of temporary cycleways and walkways for members of the public, including cyclists, in order to support physical distancing in a safe way."