Edinburgh Council is ready to repel boarders - John McLellan

Strung along the East Lothian coast you can still see the massive square monoliths installed during the war to prevent the advance of any invading German armour. They were also used to block roads, subsequently removed when the threat lifted.

The planter on the junction of Baberton Mains Drive/Wynd. Picture: JPIMedia

Despite there being no imminent threat of invasion, at least not to my knowledge, the modern equivalent of the tank trap has begun to appear across Edinburgh, but the foe this time is not the Panzer but the private car.

These are not concrete cubes impervious to 88mm shells but soil-filled wooden boxes impervious to common sense.

The latest phase of the city council’s madcap Spaces for People programme has involved plonking planters in the middle of junctions with no warning, making manoeuvring hazardous.

It’s bad enough in the middle of May, but in the depths of a gloomy winter the danger is even greater.

It’s as if the administration is laughing at residents and dismissing their concerns as those of small-minded Hyacinth Bouquets and what does it say to residents if there is a big reminder at the end of the road that the council cares more about its agenda than their views?

Remember, these were pandemic emergency measures, but a council press release this week repeated the First Minister’s statement that “the spread of the virus was under control and the route map out of lockdown was on track”.

Like Nazi invasions after 1940, the Covid-19 threat is lifting and is no excuse for official vandalism.