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.

Queensferry High School update

The contractors involved in building the new Queensferry High School have issued their latest newsletter.  You can read it in full here.

The key highlights are;

  • the project remains on track to complete in March 2020.
  • The structural steel frame has been completed. Most of ground and upper floor concrete floors have been cast and they have now commenced construction of the roof and walls.
  • The volume of traffic movement through the area will reduce significantly in February when
    concrete floor slabs are completed.
  • They have just started to construct the main entrance and school social space at the heart of the new school.

Queensferry High Street – consultation on specific proposals

Officials leading on the £1 million project to upgrade and renew the Queensferry High Street have now published specific proposals for consultation.

A special consultation event was held on Monday 24 September.  However, you can still feed in your views using this online survey.

The last round of consultation showed an almost exact three way split in views on the different options presented (limit on HGVs, one way only, no through road).  There was more than three to one support for using natural stone setts for the surface as opposed to tarmac.

Officials are now proposing the one way system, with a traffic light controlled junction at the west end of the High Street at The Loan and a new crossing point for pedestrians. HGVs would only be allowed at certain times of the day.

The west side pavement would also be extended on the Loan going round the corner to Hopetoun Road.

The surface of the High Street would be replaced with robust stone setts.

You can see all the presentation slides from the presentation event here.

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.

 

Transport Scotland snub on Bo’ness Road


As residents in Queensferry will know, we have been pushing hard for changes to improve the safety on Bo’ness Road, particularly around Echline Primary.

This is important because of changes which arose from the Queensferry Crossing and which led to substantially more traffic using Bo’ness Road.

Back in June, we managed to secure £20,000 from the Council. This is enough to cover half of the cost of a new pedestrian crossing near the school. We hoped to use that money to leverage in the remaining money from Transport Scotland.

However, Transport Scotland has now turned down our request. They are not prepared to put any money into a new crossing.

We are delighted that our local MSP, Alex Cole-Hamilton has now picked this up and is pursuing the matter with the Scottish Government Transport Secretary. You can see Alex’s letter here.

It is simply not good enough that Transport Scotland think it can walk away from a problem which it has created.

Queensferry High Street project public event – 24 September

The Council is currently taking forward a £1 million project to redevelop the Queensferry High Street.  This aims to improve the local infrastructure, parking control, traffic management and pedestrian areas.

Two rounds of consultation took place earlier in the year. Of those who responded;

  • Almost 80% were in favour of the use of natural stone setts for the new street surface rather than tarmac.
  • There was an almost three way split on the different options around traffic flow (limit on HGVs but nothing else / a  new one way system / no through road).

The project consultants now plan to present specific proposals for residents to view and comment on later this month.

A new public drop in event will take place on Monday 24 September at Orroco Pier.  You can come along anytime 3-8pm to speak with the team, view the proposals and feed in your views.

Actual construction works are likely to commence around February 2019 and be complete in October 2019.

Please do come along on the 24th if you can.

Good news on Rosebery Avenue

Earlier this year., we made a major push to get Rosebery Avenue in Queensferry resurfaced. After all, it’s probably one of the worst roads anywhere in Edinburgh (and that is saying something!)

The good news is that the work to resurface Rosebery Avenue has been confirmed from 8 October.

The work will be carried out in four phases, starting at the western end, and will inevitably involve closures and diversions. We’ve attached the letter which will be circulated to local residents with details.

We realise this work will cause some disruption but after all the concern over the terrible state of the road, we are pleased to finally get agreement and a specific timetable for the resurfacing work to be carried out.

You can read about the detailed plans here

 

New plan to ban larger vehicles from Queensferry High Street

Larger vehicles such as heavy goods lorries and tourist coaches could be banned from the Queensferry High Street for most of the day under new proposals put out for consultation.

The plans are part of the £1 million Council led project to redevelop and improve the town’s High Street.

Also out for consultation is an option of introducing a one way system along the High Street. A third option looks at making the High Street fully pedestrianised and blocked off to all through traffic.

There was an overwhelming view from residents in the last consultation in favour of changes to restrict High Street access for larger, more polluting vehicles. We obviously need to retain access for some parts of the day so local businesses can get their deliveries and have their refuse taken away. However, it appears to be widely accepted that the whole High Street would be improved if it was closed off to larger vehicles for most of the day.

Whilst there was divided opinion in the first public consultation, there was two to one majority support among people for retaining cobbles as the main road surface on the High Street. Council officials are now confident they can lay improved cobble materials which would retain the character of the High Street but better protect against wear and tear.

The latest plans have been put out as part of the second stage of the project consultation.  You can view all of the presentation  slides below.

You can also feed in your views by completing the online survey.

 

 

 

Plans for new nursery at Echline Primary

Following the increase of nursery entitlement to 1,140 hours a year and the growing local population, we know there is a need for additional nursery spaces in Queensferry.

We recently met with Council Officers to discuss the proposals for a new larger nursery based at Echline Primary School, just to the south west of the current school building.

Letters have already been issued to parents of children at the school.  Letters are also going out to those living near the school, to explain the timeline and the unavoidable disruption.

This nursery is expected to be ready from late next year and will see the current children move over before additional spaces are made available to other families in the community. The capacity will increase from 30 spaces to around 60 spaces and instead of being limited to term time only, parents will have a choice as to whether they want a term time space, or year round support.

We will keep residents informed as the project progresses.