Edinburgh Council is facing a groundswell of opinion against its traffic plans – Steve Cardownie

The Spaces for People project has much to commend it but Edinburgh Council needs to take account of local people’s opinion, writes Steve Cardownie.

Temporary road changes, including segregated cycle lanes, have been introduced in Edinburgh under the Spaces for People project

In Monday’s paper Councillor Robert Aldridge, the group leader of the Lib Dems on the City of Edinburgh Council wrote about the “Spaces for People” traffic infrastructure alterations which are currently being rolled out throughout the city. Under the headline “‘We know what’s best for you’ approach won’t wash”, he wrote: “It’s time Spaces for People got back on track by listening to local people rather than dismissing them and focusing on things that will really make a difference to them getting about on foot, on a bike or in a wheelchair.”

This was followed in yesterday’s paper when Jo Mowatt, another opposition councillor, this time Conservative, wrote under the headline, “City needs to realise locals are experts on their area”, that “urban theory should not trump lived experience and the experts on any place are those who live there – if you want to take them with you the theory has to flex, not the people.”

I expressed similar sentiments a few weeks ago when writing in this column about the “low traffic neighbourhood” traffic scheme earmarked for East Craigs. I said that people will not be persuaded by a “they don’t know what’s good for them” attitude and will be expected to be listened to on traffic changes in their area. On the point raised by Jo Mowatt, I also wrote “this is one matter where local knowledge trumps a university graduate traffic expert sitting behind a council desk” and that “if consultation is to be taken seriously then the results should not be dismissed out of hand just because it does not conform to a preconceived strategy”.

If not careful, the city’s administration is in danger of building up a groundswell of opinion against the traffic alterations by ignoring local concerns and attracting negative comment as a consequence.

There is no doubt that there is much to commend in the new traffic layout but local residents have a right to not only express an opinion, but to have that opinion taken seriously and, if merited, have it acted upon. Conflicting statements from senior councillors about the application of the new traffic measures can perhaps be put down to inexperience but it only serves to confuse matters and is in danger of bringing consultation exercises into disrepute.

Coalitions can be fragile at the best of times and the current SNP/Labour administration is not afforded the luxury of being an exception, with two Labour councillors failing to toe the coalition line at last week’s full council meeting by abstaining on a vote on the traffic measures, so the leadership has to tread carefully.

The SNP Group has already lost four members from its ranks and can ill afford to lose any more while the Labour Group has at least three members within its ranks who could be regarded as coalition detractors.

Relationships are also more likely to become more strained the closer we get to the council elections in May 2022 particularly within the Labour Group, as some grassroots Labour Party members believe that the Group should go it alone before the respective election campaigns commence.

The answer is in the Group leaderships’ hands – be innovative and forward looking but don’t forget to take the public with you, listen to legitimate concerns and endeavour to find a way of accommodating them while still adhering to a general, rather than specific, traffic management strategy.

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