Traffic Issues in Inverleith

by Pippa Leary
(reprinted from The Inverleith News, Summer 2004)

Traffic, congestion and parking continue to be hot topics in Inverleith. As an inner suburb our area is going to be affected by proposals for both the city centre and Waterfront Edinburgh. What follows is a quick overview of what has been happening in Inverleith since last issue (Autumn 2003). Contact the Society or your councillor for more detailed information.

Progress on the Proposed Extension of the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ)

Clearance of the west side of Inverleith Row
I’m loath to put the proposed removal of non-rush hour parking on the west side of Inverleith Row under the heading ‘progress’, as it is a measure which seems to be appearing, disappearing and re-appearing without public consultation. Using emotive language, this measure will reduce one side of a residential street of listed buildings and valuable local businesses to an ‘expressway’. Given a cleared road drivers would have to be positively saintly not to speed. What would they achieve and at what costs to residents? The desirable goal of arriving seconds quicker at ‘a T junction controlled by traffic lights’ (Transport talk) or Goldenacre (as we know it)? The next thing would be speed cameras. Is that how the City wants to develop the inner suburbs? Is that what we want for Inverleith?

First brought to our attention in a Councillor’s newsletter in early 2003, the City appeared to retract the idea after they realised, from a surge of letters and calls, how unacceptable it was to residents and businesses. During the consultations on the CPZ in late 2003 the traffic consultants’ maps were incorrectly marked indicating no change for this stretch of road. When the consultation staff were queried on the unlikeliness of this, their response varied. I was told that the west side would be treated like the east side. I believe others were either fobbed off or in some cases given more accurate information. The City’s current position is that this mistake ‘was picked up during the consultation last November and the plans exhibited were modified (by the addition of a note) to reflect the position’.

So, we lose residential amenity and about 60 parking places and gain faster traffic and noise, all by means of a note? Not quite. The City has agreed to hold a Public Hearing early next year, likely to be January 2005. The Society suggests that anyone with views on this should communicate/write to their local councillor (Councillor Michael Dixon west side and Councillor Alan Jackson east side) and the City’s Transport Department, indicating their wish to be heard at the Public Hearing or have their written views considered. This is not normal practice. Usually one would have had to have commented in writing at the time of the public consultation. But given the non-public way in which this measure has come about it seems fair that we should agitate to be heard in January.

Residential parking permits per house.
At the panel session at the 2003 AGM more than half of the questions were on residents’ parking and the bus/tram service. A major concern was the limitation on the number of permits per house - an unrealistic one permit per address.

One of the messages coming out of the panel session was that the City planners do respond to comments - both on the quality of the comments and the quantity. When the City’s ‘Second consultation on the proposed extension to the CPZ’ leaflet came out in November the Society produced and hand delivered a flyer to every residence and business in the area, urging people to make their views known before the 1 December deadline and giving a few pointers on the Committee’s views. Our effort bore fruit as some 6000 objections were received city-wide, of which 1787 objected to the one permit limit. A goodly number of those objections are likely to have come from Inverleith residents. The CPZ proposals have since been amended to allow two permits per address. One can count this change as a recognition of the realities of modern life.

Other aspects of the CPZ
The Society reviewed the detailed CPZ proposals contained in the exhibition in Market Street and submitted a comprehensive response. In addition to protesting about the one permit limit, our comments covered such aspects as the boundary of the zone, quantity of space allocated to residents’ parking as opposed to shared and pay and display bays, the treatment of Inverleith Row (discussed above), guest permits, businesses being eligible for residents’ parking, and hours of parking. This is the detail, where, as we know, the devil resides.

Financial matters
As an indication of how important the income raised from the enforcement of parking regulations has become to the City, the following figures might be of interest. In 2003-04 fines contributed £2.75 million to the Transport and Highways revenue budget, a not inconsiderable sum, about 11% of the total revenue budget. Actual fine income was £7.25 million, but enforcement, administration and equipment (tow trucks, etc) amounted to £4.5 million. One can assume that with the expansion of the CPZ the City is going to be the recipient of a larger financial surplus.

Outside the Proposed Extension to the CPZ
The Goldenacre end of Inverleith Row has become a focus for current plans aimed at improving bus journeys to Ocean Terminal and Waterfront Edinburgh. The proposal is to create a short length of bus lane on the west side of Inverleith Row running north from Inverleith Place. This proposal requires:
• the removal of parking spaces;
• the relocation of bus stops (e.g. the stop outside St James’ Church in the ‘indent’ moves south to a narrower part of the Row); and
• the moving of recently installed communal rubbish bins.
An additional area of concern is that the proposed bus lane cleared time (7.30 am - 9.30 am and 4.00 pm - 6.30 pm) differs from the cleared times for both the existing regulations and the proposed CPZ. And - you have guessed it - the bus lane cleared times are the most rigorous of all (4.5 hours per day versus 2.75 and 3.25 hours).

These changes will remove parking sought after by residents and shoppers, for very little gain for bus users. One wonders what any transport planner could possibly be expected to achieve in the way of improved flow given 3/4 of a mile of road with traffic lights at the north end and a roundabout (soon to be changed to traffic lights) at the south, which is a very scant four lanes wide, lined with residential development (mostly A or B listed), valuable small businesses and services, and with some major institutional uses? I am informed that these changes (or ‘tinkerings’?) may be the result of Scottish Executive monies being available for capital works. Are these proposals in effect a Greenway (Greenways need Parliamentary approval) though designated a bus lane (which can be instituted by a local authority and policed by parking attendants)? Does anyone else remember the transport official at the Greenways consultation meeting held at Heriot’s in the early 1990s disclosing that the time expected to be saved on a 20 minute bus journey was less than 2 minutes?

Congestion Charges
Being just outside the proposed inner cordon, Inverleith can expect to see traffic levels rise considerably. In our area the cordon is at Brandon Terrace, so one can imagine that cordon-avoiding traffic from the outer suburbs will use Inverleith Row/Canonmills, or shortcuts to it by Arboretum Road/Arboretum Place/Inverleith Terrace, to skirt the city centre on the east side. In fact one does not have to imagine it. The Evening News reports that the Halcrow Group, retained by Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), has calculated that traffic levels in Inverleith Terrace will rise by nearly 200%. The increase is likely to be less on Inverleith Row only because the current traffic level is high.

Communal Rubbish Bins located in the Roadway
Spring 2004 saw the introduction of communal rubbish containers in tenemented areas. Some bins are sensibly sited, such as those in Eildon Street and Inverleith Terrace, but additional bins were installed in the roadbed of Inverleith Row near Standard Life (Tanfield), 4 Summer Place (piano and mortgage shops), 71 Inverleith Row (Just Chairs) and Montagu Terrace. Why are these of interest? Because they are permanent fixtures, yet all vehicles are cleared off the Row in rush hour (or all day on the west side in the new proposal), ostensibly to facilitate the free (or fast?) flow of traffic. The bins themselves measure approximately 150 mm by 120 mm but their road markings measure 280 mm by 210 mm. Given that the modern mini or Peugeot 106 measures 330 mm, a rubbish bin area is more than two-thirds of a parking place. In the four months or so that the bins have been in place no rush hour congestion seems to have been caused. One wonders whether the bins’ existence proves that the full clearing of the Row is not essential to the smooth flow of traffic. Small changes might achieve the sought after free flow without major disruption to residents. The Society is interested in pursuing the possibility of reinforcing the Row’s residential character by returning 24 hour residents’ parking to selected lengths. If the road use were reduced to three more generous sized lanes (2 travel/
1 parking) then there seems no basis for not following the Brandon Terrace/Dundas Street pattern where 24 hour resident parking is allowed with one travel lane in each direction.

Summing up all the above comments, there needs to be a recognition that Inverleith Row has a multitude of needs to meet. There is a way this could have been done, using the RAP (Route Action Plan) process. This recognition seems already to have been accorded to Morningside Road, resulting in a customised plan being created. With our lesser business clout and unlucky ward boundary (Inverleith Row split between two wards) we are not in a favourable position.

Proposed Part -time 20 mph Speed Limit in the Fettes College Area
It is proposed to introduce a speed limit in the immediate vicinity of all primary schools by 2006. As part of this measure, we assume, there is a proposal for a part-time 20 mph speed limit in the vicinity of Fettes College, to operate during the times the pupils enter or leave the school (this is complicated for the senior school, which runs on a boarding school timetable, but seems sensible for the junior school). Enforcement is proposed to be by flashing signs. The west end of Inverleith Place falls within the currently designated 20 mph area. If, as seems likely, the area is extended north along East Fettes Avenue to include the Inverleith House entrance, residents of Fettes Rise will also be affected. The Society supports this measure to slow traffic down.

Small but Beautiful
The Society is delighted to report on the effectiveness of some measures that have been introduced:
• traffic calming requested by street residents was installed in Arboretum Road and is having the desired effect of slowing down traffic;
• parking in Arboretum Avenue, which effectively reduced this narrow road to a single (shared) lane, has been controlled with double yellow lines; and
• the perennially congested bus stop outside Tanfield has been upgraded from a white bus stop to a yellow one, and is now no longer used as a parking area - at least on weekdays. By allowing buses to pull in, the free flow of traffic at this congested location is greatly assisted.
These are all good examples of how small, and relatively cheap and quick, measures can improve daily life.

In May 2004 Canonmills Bridge and the south end of Inverleith Row were resurfaced. Compare the current roadbed to the photograph on the inside cover of last year’s Inverleith News and one can feel that at least one’s car’s suspension is getting a better deal. We are grateful for this improvement.

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