Sparks fly in New Town

Bid to unplug electric chargers

NEW TOWN residents complained that electric chargers planned for India Street would attract unwanted traffic to the area.

It comes amid a £2.2 million roll out of 81 new on-street chargers from The City of Edinburgh Council serving 141 parking bays across the capital.

This programme includes 21 already operational at Ingliston Park and Ride and a further 19 at Hermiston Park and Ride,which will soon be ready for drivers to start using.

Electric car power points will also be set up on city streets including Maxwell Street, Thirlestane Road, Stewart Terrace, Comely Bank Terrace/Avenue, Sheriff Brae, King’s

Road, Montgomery Street, Fettes Avenue, East London Street and Heriot Row.

However, two chargers previously approved by councillors to be installed on India Street could be reassigned to another location after a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) was met with 15 objections.

Residents called for the New Town street to be removed from plans and raised concerns about the potential increase in vehicles the chargers would attract, loss of permit parking spaces for those who live there and late night visits from taxi drivers.

One objector wrote: “The cul-de-sac is frequently used by many local residents, including children, dogs, and the elderly, to walk across the road to the gardens and beyond.

“This end of India Street is mostly made up of flats, 12 with no private gardens. This will greatly impede access to India Street Gardens including for my own primary aged daughters.”

Another said: “The proposal will encourage significant numbers of extra vehicles in search of charging points thereby having an adverse effect on the nature of the street.”

In addition to the objections, transport officers said site investigations found there would be “significant challenges” installing charging points on India Street.

They noted in a report to councillors that due to the street’s distance from the nearest substation, 140 metres of track would then have to be excavated across two roads.

This would require diversion routes in place causing “significant disruption.”

They added that would risk “significant financial cost and negative impacts to delivery timescales for the broader electric vehicle project programme”.