Cycling campaigners have warned of the "madness" of having to remove bike lanes from Edinburgh roads because of a row over replacing the current temporary bollards with permanent infrastructure.

A decision on making temporary cycle lanes in the east of the city permanent has been postponed twice by councillors amid demands for assurances that the existing poles and rubber defenders - often criticised as a trip hazard - would be taken away and new, higher quality kerbs and bollards installed in their place.

But unless the matter is resolved at this week's meeting of the council's Traffic Regulations Orders (TRO) sub-committee, officials have warned the orders allowing the cycle lanes could expire and they would have to be ripped out altogether.

Permanent cycle lane infrastructure could include kerb with traffic bollards like this one in Holyrood Road, rather than the rubber lane defenders and plastic poles often used as temporary measures. | City council

placeholder image — Permanent cycle lane infrastructure could include kerb with traffic bollards like this one in Holyrood Road, rather than the rubber lane defenders and plastic poles often used as temporary measures. | City council

Cycle campaign group Spokes and cycling newsletter edi.bike have co-authored an open letter to the conveners of the TRO sub-committee and the transport and environment committee, underlining the benefits brought by the cycle lanes, which were first introduced under the Spaces for People programme during Covid, now renamed Travelling Safely.

David du Feu, of Spokes, said: “The Travelling Safely schemes have been in place for almost five years, improving safety and enabling more people, notably families, to feel safe to get about by bike . There is no measurable impact on congestion or traffic flow, and no rising toll of injuries to pedestrians, cyclists or drivers.

"For the TRO subcommittee to scrap these segregated bike lanes now, purely because the council has yet to provide a strict timetable for changing the type of segregation, would be madness and a massive blow to the council's reputation and credibility on active travel."

And he pointed out the orders which the TRO sub-committee were being asked to approve were only about waiting, loading and parking restrictions which enabled the cycle lanes and claimed the installation of the lanes and the infrastructure were beyond its remit.

He said: "We trust that councillors with any remaining concerns about infrastructure will raise them at the Transport Committee, the appropriate place for changes to infrastructure, and not try to derail the whole Travelling Safely policy by blocking the traffic orders which provide its legal basis.”

The TRO sub-committee will in due course also have to consider similar traffic orders related to cycle lanes in other parts of the Capital, but the bundle for the east of the city includes cycle lanes along the A1 corridor - London Road, Willowbrae Road and Milton Road West.

And the open letter notes that the measures on Duddingston Road, Duddingston Road West and Milton Road pass several schools.

Hazel Darwin-Clements, one of the organisers of the ‘Bike Bus’ ride to Parsons Green Primary school, said: “How do we explain to our kids, the kids learning Bikeability, or the kids who cycle on our bike bus to school every week, that the council are taking away safe routes they’re used to?

"At best it’s discouraging and confusing and at worst someone is going to get seriously hurt or even killed. Cycling is a healthy, environmentally friendly, fun way to travel and we need it to be a safe way too.”