Edinburgh parking: Residents' plea for exemption from pavement ban rejected as double yellow lines look set to go ahead

The council’s transport committee voted instead to press ahead with painting double yellow lines down both sides of their streets, despite calls for a pause and a full consultation.

A traffic regulation order (TRO) to ban kerbside parking in Bangholm Road, Avenue, Park and Place will now be advertised and people will have a chance to lodge formal objections before a final decision is made by the council’s TRO sub-committee.

Residents in Bangholm Avenue now face double yellow lines down both sides of their street | TSPL

The roads are just 3.6 metres wide - half the width of normal roads - and cars parked fully on the carriageway mean there is no room for vehicles to pass, which has led to delivery vans driving on pavements. But residents say that before the pavement parking ban they parked down one side of the street with two wheels on the pavement in order to leave space for vehicles to pass and a clear pavement on the other side.

Resident Richard Stewart told the committee an exemption was the safest and most balanced solution to the problem - with parking on the pavement allowed on one side of the road and double yellow lines on the other. The area is already in line for a parking permit system. And he said residents were also in favour of reducing the speed limit to 10mph.

Mr Stewart said there were more than 50 cars in theaffected streets, but the council’s plans made no mention of where they were to park in future.

He added: ”To remove four streets of cars in the area would leave the elderly, those with young children and those with physical disabilities at a severe disadvantage and ultimately fundamentally change their life for the worse.”

The council has so far taken a strict “no exemptions” policy, arguing that the ban is working well because it is clear and applies everywhere without exception.

Mr Stewart told the committee: “We don’t want the solution for these streets to undermine the progress in the rest of the city because all the residents support the over-arching position of a pavement parking ban.”

But he said: “We don’t think this will cause wider confusion in the city, this is a self-contained set of streets, it is not a through road.”

Another resident, Pat Morrison, said there were approximately 150 households in the Bangholms and the adjoining Clark Road and Clark Avenue, who would all be affected by the plans.

That’s 300 voters whose lives will be upturned because of what appears to them to be an ill-considered, arbitrary decision. The optics of removing well-established parking arrangements when facing an 8 per cent increase in council tax is not a good look for any politician.”

She said the council’s refusal of an exemption was seen in the area as “completely unreasonable, intransigent behaviour”.

And in a written submission to the committee, Trinity Community Council (TCC) said it supported the residents' request for an exemption from the pavement parking ban.

It said: “Frankly, TCC is mystified as to how all the real world practical difficulties documented by the residents, including increased risk to pedestrians, of the ‘no exceptions’ policy can be set aside in favour of a belief that somehow an exemption for this unique area might cause the pavement parking ban to unravel.

“On the contrary, the unique features of the local Bangholm street network can readily be defined in order to demonstrate that uniqueness and that would, in turn, reinforce the ban’s application in every street which doesn't meet those criteria, i.e. all other streets in Edinburgh.

“The pavement parking ban is a good policy and has made our footways safer. It would be unfortunate if its credibility were damaged by shoehorning it into a unique context where it fails.”

Lib Dem councillor Sanne Dijkstra Downie said there was no space in Clark Road or Clark Avenue to absorb the displaced parking from the Bangholms.

And she called for a full consultation with all affected residents, including the option of redesignating some pavements as carriageway so that parking would be allowed.

She said residents had asked for more engagement with the council as the proposals were being developed, but the first opportunity to see the current plans had been a video call arranged at short notice after the reports had been submitted. “Most other residents only found out about the plans when the Evening News ran a front page story.”

Lib Dem colleague Kevin Lang said he recognised the residents’ strong preference was an exemption, but he said it was far from clear that the council could lawfully apply an exemption because of a requirement in the legislation that exemptions could only be granted where there would still be at least 1.5 metres of footway still available.

Tory councillor Marie-Clair Munro called for a local exemption to the pavement parking ban in the Bangholms and a “Mews” parking zone in these streets, allowing residents-only parking, and also for the council to look at redesignating footways as carriageways by using signag and white line markings rather than through costly roadworks.

But Green councillor Kayleigh O’Neill backed the plan for double yellow lines and the rejection of any exemption.

She said: “I really believe someone’s inconvenience shouldn’t tip the safety of children and vulnerable citizens. I get the anger, I really do, but unfortunately this area was built before cars became a thing and cars are the problem.

“I’m really keen on no exemptions - if you undermine that, I think the process isnlt worth the paper it’s written on and it’s a slap in the face for wheelchair users, guide dog users, folks with buggies and prams and anyone who just wants to use the pavements in peace.”