Edinburgh roads: Residents left confused over latest plans for Morningside's Braid estate
Residents have been left confused over the latest plans for reopening roads on an Edinburgh estate which were first closed during Covid.
The road closures in Morningside's Braid estate were one of the most controversial projects introduced under the Spaces for People programme.
In March 2024, after a consultation exercise with residents, the council's transport and environment committee agreed to remove the "modal filters" blocking through traffic and to install a segregated cycleways on Braid Avenue and Hermitage Drive.
But in April this year, the Evening News reported how 12 months on, none of the agreed changes had been implemented.
Now, however, an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) for the streets has appeared, showing modal filters reinstated at key junctions across the estate. The order has no explanatory text with it - and residents have been left puzzled about what is going on.
Morningside Tory councillor Marie-Clair Munro said: "I think there is a lot of confusion among residents as to what is happening, regardless of their feelings about it. Everyone seems to be confused."
Council chiefs say the new ETRO has been drawn up to reflect not only the decision made in March 2024, but also a decision the following month to keep open alternative options to retain or add modal filters, depending on feedback.
Transport convener Stephen Jenkinson said: "They have drawn up the ETRO with everything in it. That's so they don't have to do another one to add or remove.
"When they implement the ETRO in the Braid estate they will implement it without the modal filters. Then as part of the ETRO process there is a six-month consultation period.
"They will be testing the effect of the changes and producing data to say whether it had been successful or not, plus there will be a public consultation that runs alongside the implementation of the ETRO.
“And there is flexibility within the ETRO to add the modal filters if it is deemed necessary, appropriate and wanted by the public."
He said the ETRO, installing the segregated cycleways and reopening the roads, would not be implemented before January 2026 and the changes would have to be in place for at least six months before the ETRO was taken to the council's TRO sub-committee to be made permanent.
Resident Paul Bailey said he expected some modal filters would eventually be reinstated - and he argued one in particular, on Braid Road at the junction with Hermitage Drive and Braidburn Terrace, would be needed to prevent accidents.
But he said many people, including cycle campaigners, were opposed to the segregated cycle lanes. A road safety audit highlighted an increased collision risk from the decision to make the Hermitage Drive cycle lane bidirectional, saying drivers turning into or out of a side road might not be expecting cyclists going in both directions.
Mr Bailey said the addition of parking bays in Hermitage Drive, as well as the segregated cycle lane, had reduced the with of the road - which the council classifies as a primary route for motorists - to just 3.8 metres.
And he pointed out a floating disabled parking space was planned on Braid Avenue. “People will recall the outcry and front page Evening News coverage of the proposed floating disabled parking bay on Pentland Terrace in August 2020.”