Edinburgh road safety: Vote to speed up action over zebra crossing outside Craiglockhart Primary School
‘We had hoped this year's Primary 1 intake would be the first in the school’s 123-year history to benefit from a safe, formal crossing’ - Lynsey Houston
Councillors have voted to speed up installation of a zebra crossing outside an Edinburgh school after parents discovered no work had been scheduled despite promises of a crossing by the end of the summer holidays.
Parents at Craiglockhart Primary School say they have been pressing for safe road crossings on Ashley Terrace for more than a decade.
They say a speed survey recorded vehicles being driven at 60–65 mph in a 20mph zone during school hours.
And they have catalogued a series of accidents and near-misses near the school, including an 80-year-old pedestrian struck by a car who ended up in critical care, a parent hit by a car and two vehicles speeding past while the school crossing guide was standing in the road assisting a parent and child.
But they say promises of action over a crossing have repeatedly been broken.
Lynsey Houston, chair of Craiglockhart Parent and Carer Council, said: "The latest promise was for crossings to be delivered during the summer 2026 school holidays. Those holidays have come and gone, and still no crossings are in sight.
"In July 2026, our parent council discovered that no construction works were even scheduled. Only after councillors' enquiries were we informed that the crossing had been quietly postponed yet again and bundled into a wider Slateford Road upgrade scheme pushed back to 2027.
"We had genuinely hoped this year's Primary 1 intake would be the first in the school’s 123-year history to benefit from a safe, formal crossing."
And she added: “Over four years, works have been repeatedly postponed to accommodate vehicle diversion networks, parking zones, and bus passenger comfort - while children and pedestrians continue to face documented collisions and near-misses.
“By continually prioritising road network convenience over the physical safety of primary school children, the council is failing in its basic safeguarding obligation to our community.”
Two local ward councillors, Conservative Neil Cuthbert and the SNP’s Neil Gardiner, tabled an emergency motion at Thursday’s transport committee, calling for urgent action.
The motion noted that the council’s 2022 pedestrian crossing programme had promised delivery in 2023; and that the community was disappointed to find in 2024 the crossing was limited to built-out pavements, but continued to campaign throughout 2025 for progress, during which time traffic flow past the school increased significantly as Ashley Terrace was used to bypass closures of Craiglockhart Avenue and the current closure of Harrison Road.
It continued: “At a meeting in September 2025 with community organisations and ward councillors, Road Safety Officers agreed an improved zebra crossing to be delivered by Christmas 2025. The timeline has continuously shifted to February, Easter and then the 2026 summer holidays.”
The motion, which was approved without debate, called for officials to bring forward a clear plan to deliver a zebra crossing “at the earliest possible time”; and if necessary, decoupling it from the wider programme into a standalone project as originally planned.
And it also called for officials to set out what emergency measures could be introduced to improve road safety around the school, including a temporary build out of the pavements.