Kirkliston primary 1 / nursery update

Following the recent public meeting in Kirkliston, Council education officials are currently working on two options for P1/nursery provision in the village:

  1. Nursery on the Leisure Centre site with modular P1 classrooms also on the Leisure Centre site;
  2. Nursery on the Leisure Centre site with modular P1 classrooms on the main school site.

The public meeting showed there a clear desire for the nursery on the leisure centre site but people were less convinced that P1 pupils should be based there too.  The officials heard the concern in particular about the logistics of operation on the Leisure Centre site, the accommodation the P1 classes would have access to and the timescales for delivery.

Accordingly, they are working on progressing a design for the layout of the Leisure Centre site that will allow them to discuss in more detail how the proposal would work in practice; the timescales for delivery and the financial implications.

In terms of current work;

  • They have appointed a full design team and project management.
  • Site investigations on the leisure centre site to identify ground conditions, services, etc. are about to start.
  • They are contacting Edinburgh Leisure to discuss school use of facilities within the Leisure Centre (regardless of the solution progressed) – how this would be managed, what this might mean in cost terms, etc.
  • They have met with SportScotland and had a positive meeting in regard to the use of the “playing field” as a nursery and P1 classroom site.

They have told us that more developed design layouts should be back in the next few weeks which they intend to discuss with school management in the first instance.

They also plan to set up a working group with representatives from the Parent Council that would feed into the early design process and assist the school particularly in the transition to the new accommodation.

Major new housing plan for Craigiehall / Burnshot

A new planning application has been submitted for over 1,000 new homes on and around the Ministry of Defence land at Craigiehall just to the south of Burnshot Road.

Plans for housing on the site were first suggested back in 2016.  The new application includes;

  • a total of 1,151 new homes, including affordable housing
  • retaining the existing homes on the site including Hillisde Road and Riverside Road.
  • a possible new primary school
  • a park and ride facility at the north east of the site nearest to Burnshot Bridge

You can see the full plans here.

The Council has now commenced the statutory consultation period for people to lodge comments. You can submit views by Sunday 24 February via the online planning portal.

Because this development is proposed on land currently designated as green belt, the decision will be taken by all 63 councillors and not just the planning committee.  This means we are not allowed to express a view at this stage. If we do then we will not be able to vote on the application when it comes to full Council.  We hope our constituents understand this.

We would encourage constituents to have a good look at the plans and make their views known by the deadline.

Kirkliston First Bus update

In September, we held a well attended public meeting in Kirliston on the issue of the 38 bus.

This followed major cuts to the frequency of the service and ongoing problems with time keeping and ticketing.

We have now received the following update from First Bus following the meeting.

  1. Time keeping of services

First Bus say they have had inspectors out in Kirkliston on both a covert and overt basis to conduct monitoring surveys on the route.   Their surveys indicate that up to 15 minutes is needed to travel from Kirkliston West End to the Distillery at peak times due to traffic volumes in the area and the traffic light sequence at the Kirkliston Crossroads.

They say they are developing an “On-time performance strategy for service 38”. This involves monitoring to make sure that vehicles leave the depot on time and, in turn, start out on their first trip on time from the terminal points. They have also re-checked all of the GPS locations for bus stops along the route to confirm the robustness of all running time data.

The Performance Supervisor is monitoring the service on a day to day basis to identify specific issues and has promised to address them as quickly as possible.

It is important that any and all issues of buses not keeping to time or not turning up at all are reported to First (see below) and to Bus Users Scotland (see end).

2. Size of buses (e.g. double deckers)

First Bus say local measures have been put in place at the Livingston Depot to make sure that double deckers are allocated to peak time journeys.  Their  observations are that double deckers are not necessarily needed in terms of passenger loadings per trip.

The Inspectors who carried out the street surveys did not conclude an overall lack of capacity. If customers have not been able to board a journey due to capacity, First Bus want to hear of this so they can investigate specific issues.

Please make sure to copy us into any correspondence you have with First on this point.

3. Real time information at bus stops

First Bus say they are continuing to work with the SEStran Real Time Information supplier to find a solution to the screens issue which is still not resolved.

The real time information system which was on the buses had been switched off because they believed the ticket machines could give the required feed. This has not been the case and so they are now in the process of putting the old system back in place. First say the app has been looked at and appears to be working.

We intend to keep pressure on First to get this real time information issue resolved as soon as possible.

4. Customer complaint response times

The serious issues with getting responses to questions and complaints has been raised with their Customer Service Centre management team so that improvements can be made.

Customers should submit their comments through the FirstBus webform here: 

Alternatively, customers should phone 0345 646 0707 (Mon-Fri 0700-1900, Weekends/Bank Holidays 0900-1700). The First Bus Twitter feed is also manned during the same hours.

First say their response timescales are set at 14 working days but the customer service team are supposed to respond sooner if needed. First Bus are not prepared to accept our request for a dedicated complaint email or webform for the 38 bus.

If you make a complaint and do not get a reply within 14 days, please let us know.

5. Ticketing issues

The only valid FirstDay ticket that customers can buy for travel between Kirkliston and Edinburgh is the Zone M FirstDay ticket, which can only be purchased from the driver on the bus at a price of £4.00. The ticket is not available on the M-tickets app (we are again querying why), it can be purchased and paid for on board using cash, contactless credit/debit card, as well as the Google/Apple Pay digital wallets.

The higher priced FirstDay ticket (£4.30) that residents have spotted and have (incorrectly) purchased from the M-tickets app only covers travel within Zone L (Livingston/Bathgate/Whitburn, etc). Kirkliston and Edinburgh are both located inside Zone M and, therefore, customers cannot buy or use a Zone L ticket for use in a different lettered zone to the one that it’s intended for.

We do not consider this a satisfactory answer and are pursuing this further.

6. Going Forward

Given the serious performance issues we have seen with First, we are strongly encouraging people to complain direct to Bus Users Scotland whenever buses are significantly late or do not show up.  Bus Users Scotland is the Scottish Government recognised body for complaints of this kind.

All complaints should be send to enquiries@bususers.org listing the date, time and nature of the complaint. To help us build a case file, please copy us into any complaint you make.

Working with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, we are also continuing our campaign to get Lothian Buses to start a direct service between Kirkliston and the city centre.  We continue to have serious doubts over the continued performance of First which makes it all the more important for the Council owned and operated bus company to properly serve the village.

SNP and Labour vote down action plan on local buses

Earlier today, we brought an urgent motion to Edinburgh Council, seeking a new action plan to address the declining bus services in rural West Edinburgh.

After the halving of services in Kirkliston, the loss of the St John’s bus link and changes which routed buses away from Newbridge, it is clear a different approach is needed.

Unfortunately, the SNP and Labour administration of councillors voted down our motion. They said the current approach was sufficient. We couldn’t disagree more.

Surprisingly, even the SNP councillor for Kirkliston and Newbridge voted against our motion. It is clear the SNP led administration simply doesn’t get the scale of the problem.

We will continue to stand up and fight for improvements to local bus services.

 

Foxhall housing plan in Kirkliston gets green light

Plans to build around 100 new homes on the Foxhall fields just to the east of Kirkliston have been approved by the Council planning committee.

Like many local residents in the village, we strongly objected to these proposals during last year’s consultation. We were greatly concerned about the impact which another major development would have on the traffic and congestion problem in the middle of the village.   We think the problems being seen in Kirkliston need to be solved before we approve further housing.

As part of this approval, the developer has agreed to pay for improvements to the junction to try and address traffic flow.  This will be need to be considered alongside the results of the recent traffic study.  We will be working to hold them to that promise.

The approval by the planning committee is only for the principle of building on this site.  The housing developer will have to come back to the Council with more detailed plans at a later point.  This will include the layout and mix of housing (probably 25% affordable housing) as well as the road access (probably from the north).

We are pleased that the Council has insisted that the developer will have to contribute as much as £1 million towards increasing capacity at local schools to accommodate the additional pupils coming from these new homes.  This is essential given the pressures on local schools.

Kirkliston road works on Queensferry Road

BT Openreach will be undertaking major works on Queensferry Road near to the junction of Newmains Road and Housefield Drive from Monday (3rd September).

This work will run until 10 September and will involve three way temporary traffic lights.

We are conscious this is already a busy route so works of this scale are going to cause disruption.

We have already spoken with the local roads officer at the Council. After the problems we’ve seen elsewhere in the city, we really need the pressure to be kept on BT to make sure they stick to schedule and get the works compete ASAP.

You can see the plans showing the works and temporary lights by clicking on the link below.

Kirkliston Queensferry Road BT (Aug18)

Time for Lothian Buses to serve Kirkliston….properly!

The loss of the First Bus 38A and cuts to the frequency of bus services between Kirkliston and Edinburgh City Centre makes it even more important for Lothian Buses to step in and properly serve Kirkliston.

It is simply unacceptable that Lothian  – the Council owned bus company – serves places outside of Edinburgh like Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Penicuik when it does not provide Kirkliston with a direct city centre link.  The problem has been made even worse after Lothian launched new services in West Lothian, one of which passes just to the south of Kirkliston.

We have joined Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP and Christine Jardine MP to write (again) to the managing director of Lothian Buses to ask for the introduction of a new service. At the very least, we believe there is a case for Lothian to carry out a trial.

You can see our letter here.

Conifox expansion plans approved

We are delighted to see that the two planning applications to expand the Conifox Adventure Park in Kirkliston have been approved by Council planning officers.

One application is to build a new indoor multi purpose activity centre. The other is to extend the existing adventure park to include a dog agility area, fortress and maze, go-karts, mini quad bikes, crazy golf, remote control cars and more.

The applications were submitted last September and only attracted a handful of objections.

We were pleased to recently visit the Conifox to meet with the owners and discuss their exciting plans for the future.  We are looking forward to seeing those plans come to life now the planning processes have been approved.