Edinburgh Council is riding roughshod over local opinion about traffic and roads – Robert Aldridge

By failing to listen to local people, Edinburgh Council risks tarnishing the good parts of the Spaces for People scheme, writes Robert Aldridge.

Transport convener Lesley Macinnes addresses East Craigs residents at the Gyle Park meeting (Picture: Alex Cole-Hamilton)

Across the city people are telling me that the council simply doesn’t listen to them. Yes, the council holds numerous consultations but the constructive ideas and suggestions sent in are simply dismissed or ignored unless they come from a small group of specialist lobby groups or fit with what the council wanted to do in the first place.

It is little wonder that at the same time as responses to consultations have gone up the number of people who think they can influence what goes on in their area is very low.

And there is no better example of this than the Spaces for People project. It has great aims which I agree with, making walking cycling and wheeling easier, and especially making social distancing easier during the Covid crisis. Quick decisions were rightly made during the national lockdown in May to close some roads and expand pavements while traffic was very light.

Robert Aldridge is Lib Dem group leader at Edinburgh City Council

But the situation has changed. Lockdown has eased (at least for now). Traffic is heavier and more people have returned to work. So it is right that the changes are reviewed regularly every two months to check that they are still relevant (which Lib Dems got the council to agree to).

Where it has gone wrong is where the team overrules and dismisses the views of local residents who know their local area well. The “we know best what is good for you” approach simply won’t wash, and no wonder people are angry and frustrated. It seems those who are not affected believe they know better than those who will have to live with the consequences of the decisions day in and day out.

It is compounded when local residents are falsely accused of not living locally, of intimidating people of a different opinion and of having been consulted when they haven’t been. On top of that, in East Craigs at an open air public meeting in Gyle Park they were told at great length by the Transport Convenor that they were in a process which couldn’t be changed. She has now changed the process unilaterally though hasn’t explained clearly what the new process is. She complained at how many people attended the public meeting but had tweeted asking people to come along.

The council leader at one meeting said the changes would be made permanent as quickly as possible, but at the next one said they were not permanent. You get the impression they are making it up as they go along.

My worry is that through the incompetent and dismissive approach to this and some other projects in the city, the council will undermine more positive, valuable and uncontentious environmental projects and contaminate the Spaces for People programme as a whole.

More seriously, by pretending that major strategic projects are linked to the Covid emergency, when they clearly are not, they risk undermining any future vital public health messages which really are important in combatting Covid.

Time and again local residents across the city ask for simple improvements to be made which are not done. Cutting back overgrown hedges, fixing uneven pavements, removing redundant street furniture and filling potholes all help people who walk, cycle or wheel. They are all small projects which make a big difference, rather than grandiose projects which make very little difference.

It’s time Spaces for People got back on track by listening to local people rather than dismissing them and focussing on things which will really make a difference to them getting about on foot, on a bike or in a wheelchair.

Robert Aldridge is Lib Dem group leader at Edinburgh City Council

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