Pedal for Scotland – important information for Kirkliston

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One of our major criticisms of last year’s Pedal for Scotland event was the lack of consultation and information for local people impacted by the road closures.  This was particularly important for people in Kirkliston.

We are pleased that the event organisers have been much more open this year and have engaged local groups like the community council.

This year’s event will take place on Sunday 9th September. 

The event organisers have created a dedicated information booklet or residents in Kirkliston.  You can get all the information here.

Hard copies of these are being delivered to the village.

As a result of feedback, it’s important to note that the last cyclist now leaves Glasgow Green 30 minutes earlier than previous years meaning that roads can be reopened earlier. The letter drop to residents is being sent out earlier than in previous years.

For people with priority needs, most importantly such as social care visits, managed access plans can be put in place if Pedal Scotland are contacted at info@pedal.scot If people are unable to access the Internet or email, they can phone 0333 300 3485.

Massive boost for Kirkliston school campaign


Our local campaign to secure a new secondary school in Kirkliston has had a major boost after Council officials announced they had identified a possible location.

Papers for this week’s Education Committee of Edinburgh City Council show a secondary school could be built on land just to the east of the village, off Burnshot Road.

Last year, Council education officials published proposals for a new West Edinburgh High School, with an initial site located near to Gogar. Following objections from the Scottish Government, an alternative site was identified just to the east of Ratho Station on the A8.

However, many parents raised serious concerns about transporting a large number of children between Kirkliston and Ratho Station in congested commuter traffic each morning.

That is why we worked together and intervened, proposing an amendment at the Education Committee to look seriously at locating a new secondary school in or around the village. Six months on, education officials have said they have identified a possible site and are in discussions with the land owner.

We now need to progress the discussions as quickly as possible so we can end the uncertainty.

Good news on Bo’ness Road traffic campaign

We wave some good news on our work to address the traffic concerns in Bo’ness Road.

Thank you to everyone who came along to last week’s public meeting with the Transport Convener. We know people left frustrated at her lack of willingness to consider Bo’ness Road as a special case.

However, immediately after the public meeting, the local Neighbourhood Partnership met. This is a group made up of councillors and local community representatives. During that meeting, we reviewed the next round of community funding which is available from the Council for us to prioritise small local projects. This included that ‘local roads fund’.

The local transport manager, who sat through the public meeting and heard the views of local people, recommended that money be allocated to fund 50% of the expected cost to install a full pedestrian crossing on Bo’ness Road.

This sets aside £20,000 and paves the way to have discussions with other organisations like Transport Scotland about match funding. We can also use this money to make attempts to negotiate a contribution from the Council’s road safety team.

We are certain that we are in this situation as a direct result of the efforts by the community and the passion and concern shown on this issue at the public meetings. We will be keeping up the pressure on how to find the rest of the funds.

Major road works for Queensferry Road / Quality Street, Davidson’s Mains

A major programme of road works are due to start from Monday 18 June affecting Queensferry Road and much of Davidson’s Mains village.

The works by Scottish Power and their subcontractor Clancey Docwra are part of a major project to upgrade their power cabling. To do this Scottish Power need to open cut the road from their substation on Quality Street to another substation on Clermiston Road North.

Traffic management will be placed on Quality Street from early on 17 June in preparation for the work starting the next day.  (The work has been moved back from the original 16 June date in order to avoid any impact on the Davidson’s Mains Gala Day).

  • First phase (Two weeks from 17 June) – Quality Street will be closed northbound.  Traffic will not be able to exit onto Quality Street from Queensferry Road.  Southbound traffic will continue to be able to access Queensferry Road from Quality Street.  This will impact on the eastbound Lothian 21 and 41 bus services which will be diverted (details still be to published).
  • Because of the diversions along Corbiehill Road, there will be three way temporary lights at the Main Street/Corbiehill Road junction to assist traffic and public transport.

  • The second phase (likely starting from 30 Jun / 1 Jul) – The contractor will work along Queensferry Road from Quality Street heading westbound towards Clermiston Road North. Queensferry Road will be down to a single lane in each direction with Clermiston Road North closed to aid traffic. The pedestrian crossing at Davidson Mains park will remain in operation.
  • Scottish Power have four weeks to finish their works in Queensferry Road and must be off the road by the end of July. If Scottish Power has not completed their works they will return during the October school holidays.

Even with the traffic management arrangements, we know this work will cause significant delays and inconvenience.

We have been assured that Scottish Power will be working on site seven days a week and working long shifts to get the works completed as quickly and safely as possible.

Council officers will be closely monitoring the works throughout but especially during the first few days of each phase when traffic is adjusting to the traffic management arrangements.  They will look to make whatever changes that are necessary.

You can see the letter which Scottish Power are delivering to those living closest to the affected areas.

Letter for letter drop Davision mains project

Back our campaign to save Queensferry and Kirkliston’s hospital bus link

Click here to sign our petition to save the 22A bus to St. John’s.

First Bus has announced proposed changes to its services in West Lothian.  These would end the current 22A bus service between Queensferry, Kirkliston and St. John’s Hospital.

We think it is unacceptable that these communities could be left without a regular and reliable bus service to and from St. John’s. With rising populations, Queensferry and Kirkliston need this important link now more than ever.

Even those who don’t need to use the bus themselves will know others who depend on this bus to get to and from our important local hospital.

First Bus say they are consulting and want to hear local views before a final decision is taken.  We need to send the company a message – loud and clear – that the 22A must be saved.

This is why we have launched a new petition.  It takes just five minutes to add your name.  Please add your support today.  Thank you

Click here to sign the petition to save the 22A

New parking restrictions in Cramond and Barnton


Last night’s meeting of the Council’s North West Locality Committee approved set two new sets of parking restrictions.

1. BARNTON AVENUE WEST
This TRO followed a consultation back in Aug/Sep 2016 and came on the back of concerns about day time parking from school drop offs and pick ups as well as obstructions to household driveways.

The TRO delivers;
• Double yellow (no waiting) lines at the turning circle at the eastern end of Barnton Avenue West,
• Single yellow (no waiting between 07:30 and 18:30 Monday to Friday) lines along the south side of the road, from 10 Barnton Avenue West along to the turning circle.

We tabled an amendment which requires Council officials to carry out a full review, 12 months after the new lines are put down. The results of that review will have to come back to us and other councillors to consider. That way, we can decide whether additional restrictions are needed.

You can read the full committee report here.

2. CRAMOND GLEBE ROAD
Concerns were raised that, when the Cramond Car park is full, drivers often park on Cramond Glebe Road. Due to the busy nature of the area local congestion often occurs and
emergency services access has been affected.

The introduction of the double yellow lines in part of Cramond Glebe Road will prohibit parking between the Car Park and the Kirk and should provide safe access for visitors, residents, businesses and emergency services.

You can read the full report here.

The new lines should be painted in the next few months.

Queensferry High School project to start 30 April

The project to build the new Queensferry High School is due to begin on Monday 30 April. The first phase of the works will run to March 2020 and involve the building of the new school building.

A new access road will be created from Station Road.  This will require traffic management in the form of temporary traffic lights to carry out these works. From the end of May, work will start on the drainage and foundation works with the start the erection of the structural steel frame in September 2018.

As the main contractor for the work, Morrison Construction promised to keep the local community informed and has issue the first of what is intended to be a regular newsletter update. You can see this by clicking on the images below.

Queensferry High Street project – have your say by 2 May!

We are delighted to see the £1 million project to redevelop and improve the Queensferry High Street finally making progress with the first public consultation.

The budget for the project was approved by the City of Edinburgh Council back in January 2016 with the aim to improve the local infrastructure, parking control, traffic management and pedestrian areas of the High Street.

However, the project was delayed following staffing changes in the Council.  A commitment to making progress was given after we complained about the delays at a full meeting of the Council last October.

Since then, project consultants Ironside Farrar have been appointed and a project management board established involving representatives of the community.

The first stage consultation is underway.  At this stage the consultants want to hear your views about the High Street, what you want kept and what you would like changed.  There will be further consultation on more specific proposals in June and then September.  Actual construction works are likely to commence around February 2019 and be complete in October 2019.

You can see the presentation by clicking on the slides below.  You can submit comments to mail@ironsidefarrar.com marked ‘FAO The Queensferry High Street Team’.  Comments for this stage of the consultation need to be submitted by Thursday 2 May.

 

 

South Scotstoun housing approved – Lib Dem member voted to refuse

The planning application to build 340 homes on the South Scotstoun fields was before the planning committee this morning.

As before, we submitted a request for a hearing so we could speak before the committee and highlight local concerns before a decision was taken. We were very grateful to the Lib Dem member of the committee, Cllr Hal Osler for formally moving that the hearing request be accepted and heard. However, the matter went to a vote and was lost by 4 votes to 7.

The committee then had to consider the application. We are sorry to say the application was approved by 8 votes to 3.

Again, we are grateful to our Lib Dem colleague Cllr Osler for voting to refuse the application. All SNP, Labour and Conservative members of the planning committee voted in favour of the application.

There remain extremely serious issues around roads and infrastructure to support all this new housing.

Whilst today’s decision (and that from a few weeks ago) didn’t go the way we would like, we’ll be working hard to try and ensure the improvements which are so badly needed are put in place.