Edinburgh roads: Narrowest streets could get double yellow lines under pavement parking ban

A list of streets has been drawn up where large vehicles, like fire engines, bin lorries or buses, have trouble getting past if there are cars parked on both sides. Previously, car owners may have parked partly on the pavement to make it easier, but that is now outlawed.

So now the council could step in with yellow line restrictions.

Rosebank Grove in Trinity is one street where drivers used to park on the pavement so there was room for vehicles to pass | Google

Before enforcement of the ban began in January, the council identified 556 “red streets” where there were “significant levels of footway parking” which might require measure to be taken to ensure road safety and the free flow of traffic.

The council says motorists have responded well to publicity and awareness drives and compliance with the pavement parking ban is now high, but there are a small number of streets where parking problems remain.

Transport and environment convener Scott Arthur said: “We're going to propose a solution that will deal with the final part of the problem in those streets and that is almost certainly going to be introducing double yellow lines either on one side of the street or both sides of the street.”

He said in many cases, concerns had been raised by emergency services or Lothian Buses about their vehicles being able to get past parked cars.

Belmont Gardens in Murrayfield is another street facing possible yellow lines because parking on both sides makes the roadway too narrow | Google

Cllr Arthur said: “What has happened in these streets is that, although people are not parking on the footpath, they are parking in a way that makes it difficult for vehicles to get down the street, including larger vehicles like fire engines and buses.

“In some of these streets it will be that people have simply not agreed which side of the street they should park on to allow vehicles to get through, so in a street like that we will put double yellow lines down one side of the road.

“But in some streets it might be that the road is just not wide enough to allow parking on either side for a bus to get through, so a double yellow line would go on both sides.”

A report to next week’s transport and environment committee says single and double yellow line restrictions have been proposed in six streets to ensure access is maintained for local bus services:

• Craigour Avenue

• Lochend Avenue

• Lochend Drive

• Loganlea Drive

• Pennywell Gardens

• Seafield Place.

And the report listed another 21 streets where proposals to introduce waiting restrictions are being developed:

• Bavelaw Green / Road

• Belmont Gardens

• Craigour Avenue

• Craigour Grove

• Ferry Road

• Gillespie Crescent

• Granton Medway

• Granton Terrace

• Lochend Avenue

• Lochend Drive / Lochend Quadrant

• Loganlea Drive / Craigentinny Road

• Loganlea Place

• Murrayburn Road

• Newcraighall Road

• Observatory Green

• Pennywell Gardens / Muirhouse Loan

• Queensferry Road (Kirkliston)

• Rosebank Grove

• Seafield Place / Boothacre Cottages

• Wardie Park

• Western Gardens

At the last transport and environment committee, residents from Bangholm Avenue, Bangholm Road, Bangholm Park and Bangholm Place, off Ferry Road, pleaded for an exemption from the parking ban, saying their streets were just 3.6 metres wide, less than half the width of the average road in Edinburgh.

The report says measures for these streets, together with Newcraighall Road, have yet to be determined.

In January, the Capital became the first place in Scotland to use new powers to enforce a complete ban on pavement parking. More than 600 fines were issued in the first four weeks, but numbers have come down since then, which the council says shows the policy is being effective.

Cllr Arthur said: “A lof of other local authorities are looking to us to learn from what we've done, particularly the fact we went for no exemptions.  But these last few streets we have to tackle just to make sure this ban works for everyone and creates that safer and more welcoming city.”