Edinburgh roads: Decision on future of Braid estate traffic filters 'must not be whitewash'
A group of residents caught up in a row over one of Edinburgh's most controversial traffic schemes have warned the final decision on its future must not be a "whitewash".
The city's transport committee agreed on Thursday that the fate of the traffic filters on Morningside's Braid estate - in place since Covid - should be decided by the council's Traffic Regulation Orders sub-committee, which is due to meet in early June.
The sub-committee will consider objections which have been lodged to the current scheme and decide whether or not it is made permanent.
Braid Estate Safety First, which represents residents of Midmar Gardens, Midmar Drive, Midmar Avenue and Hermitage Gardens, is unhappy with the current measures, claiming traffic is now worse across much of the area.
And they fear the sub-committee could decide to keep the existing arrangements and ignore the results of a consultation with residents carried out two years ago.
Following that consultation, the transport committee agreed in March 2024 to remove the filters and install a segregated cycle lane along with traffic calming measures - the option which commanded most support in the survey.
But the change was never implemented and the validity of the decision was called into question after the Standards Commission censured two councillors for taking part in the vote despite living nearby.
Scott Gibson, of Braid Estate Safety First, said: "What I'd like to make sure is that it's not just whitewashed through, that it receives proper scrutiny and they take account of all the comments from the people who have suffered collateral damage from this scheme.
"We had a consultation, so if no regard is paid to the outcome of that then it rather flies in the face of having asked the public in the first place.
“Regardless of whether the 2024 vote was procedurally valid, it nonetheless represented the outcome of the only meaningful engagement with the community in relation to the scheme and should still be respected, not politically swept aside in a case of sod-the-public.”
He continued: “We disagree with the regularly used description of the current layout as ‘much-loved’. It is certainly not much-loved by a majority of the Braid estate, where it is the narrower streets that have become rat runs, speeds have increased to due driver frustration, and there are regular bumps between cars.
“The reality for those of us living here is that, compared with pre-pandemic, traffic has increased everywhere in the Braid estate other that on the main, widest, straightest, traffic light controlled road – ie. Braid Avenue.”
The TRO sub-committee meeting is scheduled for June 2, less than two weeks before the order governing the current scheme will expire on June 15.
A report to the transport committee said: “The sub-committee could decide to make the order permanent, in full or in part, or not to make the order permanent. Depending on the sub-committee’s decision all, part or none of the current trial scheme would be retained.”