A decision will be made on the track on Tuesday, but come at 9am if you want to join the protest, before joining the Council meeting at 10. The Council has released its papers for the next meeting of the Transport & Environment Committee - see them at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4002/transport_and_environment_committee . The cycle track is item 7.5 on the agenda- if you want to go straight to that item click here: www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/51597/item_75_-_city_centre_west_to_east_cycle_link_and_street_improvements The report is 46 pages long. What’s in it? Page 9 observes “a strong preference for Option B (using Roseburn Place) amongst local businesses and Community Councils, with a high level of opposition to Option A (Roseburn Terrace). . The majority of Active Travel Forum members who responded support Option A.” There is no mention of our preferred option, “The Roseburn Vision”, in the whole document. The cycling officer has ignored the wishes of the SNP group to see that proposal properly explored or costed. Cycling officer recommends a new track over the existing NCN1 along Balbirnie and claims it: - is significantly shorter; (His route is 940m. Our route is 1060 metres. A difference of 120m, or 12.7% is not significant. It is slight.) - is significantly less hilly; (Again, he abuses the term “significant”. True our route is more hilly, but only slightly. I have cycled both routes many times. Journey time by his route: 3 minutes. By our one: 4 minutes) - is much more obvious; (Mostly because the Council does not signpost NCN1) - avoids the need to use the relatively narrow shared pedestrian/cycle paths on parts of the current route (but NCN1 could be widened) - minimises security concerns; (I have no idea what this means) - has a much higher proportion of its length totally separated from general traffic. (but there is no general traffic on NCN1 at all) So- for the sake of cutting one minute off a journey, the cycling officer wants to blow £1M, ruin 54 businesses, remove a bus lane and annoy every commuter going west by creating huge congestion and longer bus travel times. It claims that our proposed cut-through for those who don’t want to go to Haymarket is 50% longer, but our cut-through is less than 200 metres long, which is 20% extra, not 50%. It then goes onto say that some of our design suggestions will be considered at the detailed design stage, but Councillors will have no control over that (so neither will we). The report then goes onto the detail- but not for Roseburn. The crazy Russell Road / Roseburn Street redesign with vastly reduced carriageways is in the design in the appendix but not mentioned here. There is no mention of the 50% reduced parking and loading in option A and its impact on the shops. No mention of the massive congestion likely to be caused by reducing from 4 lanes to 2. No mention under option B of making the junction outside the Roseburn Bar unsuitable for long vehicles- including the many tour buses we get on match days. And for both A and B, no mention of the blocking the road off in Roseburn Place, nor the opposition to that. For West Coates the removal of the central refuges for pedestrian crossing is mentioned only in appendix 4. The cycling officer says “Although this will make crossing the street take a little longer, the carriageway width will be decreased due to the cycle lane.” But he neglects to mention that cyclists will not be stopping when the traffic lights are red, so increased danger to anyone who gets in their way. No mention of the impact of 300 new homes, either. For Haymarket the reduction in parking of 50% is ignored. The relocation of the taxi rank to Clifton Terrace- well away from the station - is planned, but the rank will be out of sight of those leaving the station, with the hire signs facing the wrong way- and will be 50% further to walk. A Haymarket resident suggested putting the taxi rank under the station (there is loads of unused space) but that proposal has been ignored. For the whole route there is no mention of the impact of removing the westbound lane, which led Lothian Buses to condemn the scheme. No mention anywhere of the current volume of traffic or any assessment of the impact of the scheme on congestion. City expansion of 20% is due in the next few years and 18000 people in 6000 homes will be added at Gogarburn; the additional demands on the bus services will be huge: removing the westbound bus lane takes no account of future needs. Page 13 observes that the Council has failed to secure the Sustrans funding for 50% of the cost - but suggests, rather hopefully, they’ll give the Council some cash anyway because Transport Scotland (their funders) will tell them to. ( BTW I think the £ may have gone to Glasgow instead- thanks to our campaign: Sustrans came to the public meeting) If the Council passes the scheme on Tuesday, whether that be option A or B, they’ll move to getting the Traffic Regulation Orders in place, more detailed designs and getting the tenders arranged- and as soon as funding arrives, they’ll start building. Cllr Hinds is stepping down come May, but that will be too late for us. She is very much behind this scheme. If we want to oppose this, we must do two things. Firstly, try and send deputations. I know the Roseburn Traders will send one- I am hoping that the residents groups and Hmkt businesses do so too. Each organisation can send a deputation (1 or more people)- and any collection of 4 people or traders is technically a group- you can give yourselves a name. The Roseburn Cycle Route Group and Spokes have already booked their deputations to speak in favour. It will be up to Cllr Hinds if our requests are accepted. I am going to submit a request from The Roseburn Vision group; I will present the 6,000 signatures on the petition to Cllr Hinds as part of the deputation and at that point this petition will be closed. Secondly, we must gather at 9am at the City Chambers on Tuesday morning and show our opposition. At 10am we must queue for visitors passes to get into the meeting – I hope most of us will be successful. Bring placards etc, - the media will be there. Proceedings will be recorded on the Council webcam TV system. . The deputations will be heard first, so those speaking will get away at 11am. However, if you want to see the cllrs debate the scheme please stay. I understand our ward cllrs will be addressing the Committee too. Please let me know if you have any queries; if you want to see more details go to my website below. See you Tuesday hopefully, Best wishes Pete Gregson