Hi Petition-signer, Thanks for signing the petition against the cycle track. I hope you don’t mind me writing to you- and I assure you I won’t make a habit of it. I wanted to let you know that I run an update e-mail every week to those who want to get more involved in the campaign to stop this track. If you are interested, let me know and I will add your name to the mailing list. I also wanted to alert you to a couple of developments. Our local Councillor, Jeremy Balfour, is going to table a question to the Leader of the Council at tomorrow’s full Council meeting. He will ask that the Transport Committee come to Roseburn to see what the impact of the track will be before they come to a decision. It will be interesting to see how Cllr Burns responds. If you want to watch the meeting, you can do so through the webcast at http://www.edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/175600. If you miss the show, it will be available from the archive on Friday. The meeting starts at 10am but it is unlikely they will get to the Leaders’ questions until 10.40 am (the questions come after the Leader’s Report). The agenda can be viewed here: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/3894/city_of_edinburgh_council . The other news is that we now have 5,000 new flyers printed. Many will be distributed through the businesses that line the route of the track but I am also hoping to get them into the homes in the neighbourhoods along the course of the track. I am looking for volunteers to help with delivering door to door and if you have a few hours spare and want to help out, please let me know. At present we have 2,730 signatures on the petition but I would like to get 5,000. That would represent 80% of those living in the vicinity of the track and I think it would be very hard for the Council to go ahead with that level of opposition. The agency that has brought the track to us is Edinburgh cycle campaign group Spokes. Over the past two years they have convinced Edinburgh Council that the future for the city is a network of cycle tracks. They are vociferous in their support for the West Coates cycle track and they even went so far as to organise a counter-petition to ours which drew 817 signatures (see www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-roseburn-west-coates-protected-cycle-route). The Convenor of the Transport Committee sees their petition as countering ours and believes it gives her licence to proceed. However, the provenance of many of those signing the Spokes petition is dubious- because it was run through the iPetion online website, there is no evidence many of them live in Edinburgh or even the UK. Ours, on the other hand, have EH postcodes. Anyway, I am a Spokes member and received their newsletter on Monday. In it, they published an update about the West Coates track, as part of a bigger news article indicating fears that Sustrans may pull out and scupper the whole programme: “Unfortunately the plans generated hostility at Roseburn, backed by local SNP and Conservative councillors Frank Ross and Jeremy Balfour, mainly due to loss of traffic lanes and parking opportunities – though the parking is often illegal, and alternative loading will be provided. A 2014 Murrayfield Community Council report says the main road there is “noisy, busy, smelly ” and locals don't “ linger or walk there for pleasure.” The Council plans will reduce traffic space, widen the south footway, and separate pedestrians on the north footway from traffic. Public consultation is now over, and a decision by the council on how / whether to change the plans will follow. After detailed thought and much feedback from Spokes members, we are convinced that in general the Council has got it right. The plans will greatly improve the local Roseburn environment, encourage local shopping by walkers and cyclists, and provide the direct and visible route needed to foster substantial growth in bike use.” (see p4 of http://www.spokes.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/pall-1.pdf) There is an opportunity to challenge Spokes’s view at the Holyrood Hustings event they are planning in two week’s time. If any of you want to join me at the meeting at the St Brides Centre in Dalry on the 21st March at 7.30pm, please get in touch. There will be fireworks and it will be like putting your head into the lion’s mouth, but if you like such adventure, let me know and we can go together. I won’t be sending you many more updates through Change.org. There is lots to be done, what with lobbying Councillors and so on, and we shall be busy until June (or even August), depending on which month the Officer’s recommendations go to Committee. If you want to help lobby Councillors or in any of the other ways described above, you can contact me at postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com . Best wishes, Pete Gregson Petitioner Riversdale, Edinburgh