Has Edinburgh council’s misrepresentation of the issues with Spaces for People gone too far?

Two weeks ago, 144 medical and health professionals in Edinburgh signed an open letter to councillors, campaigning to keep Spaces for People schemes because of the health and environmental benefits the medics believe they could provide.

What the medics might not have realised when they signed the letter, is that around 70% of the Spaces for People schemes they are campaigning to keep, actually have a negative impact on disabled people. This is according to the council’s own scoring criteria in their own report on the schemes.
 
SNP Cllr and Transport & Environment convenor Lesley Macinnes, who was responsible for installing the schemes in this way, has said the medics letter is “incredibly welcome” and is calling for a council report based on points made in the medics’ letter.
 
Green Cllr and Transport & Environment committee member Claire Miller, also “Welcomes the considered professional opinion of the signatories...” and is asking council to vote to ensure that any future decisions about active travel measures take account of these opinions.
 
Today, Keep Edinburgh Moving - the collective of local community groups (including SWEM) - campaigning for proper consultation on active travel schemes, has published an open response to the medics. (Allow a few seconds for it to download from this link.)

The response agrees that active travel brings benefits for health and the environment when implemented properly and asks:

1. Did the medics know the issues caused for disabled people when they signed the letter?
2. If they didn’t, could it be because of the many ways the council has misrepresented the issues?
3. Would they still sign that letter now?
4. And lastly, from now on, please can they help to change this situation?

The benefits of active travel to health and the environment are not in dispute.
 
But we shouldn’t have to choose. Schemes to benefit cyclists must not discriminate against disabled people. It’s not a sustainable or ethical approach.
  
It’s important that everyone in Edinburgh is aware of the negative impacts Spaces for People has and that there has to be a better way to achieve health and environmental goals.
 
It is not acceptable to launch another 18 months of “experimental schemes” in the full knowledge of the negative impacts on disabled people at the outset.

Please help raise awareness of this issue.