Edinburgh Council's lax attitude to road safety outside schools is unacceptable – John McLellan

In all the arguments about Edinburgh Council’s anti-car agenda, there has been no dispute that safety around schools is paramount.

There is no dispute that safety around schools is paramount (Picture: Joël Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

That’s one reason I opposed a plan to divert around 30 heavy goods vehicles past the Royal High Primary because of work on the Portobello junction.

The parent council has correctly insisted that, at the very least, all safety measures, like flashing signs and speed bumps, should be installed on Northfield Broadway before the diversion of any trucks, and sensibly, officers have now agreed.

But over at the new Victoria Primary School in Newhaven which opened at the turn of the year, it appears that road safety measures have been a complete afterthought.

My colleague Cllr Jim Campbell has discovered that school warning signs weren’t included in the contract and officers have now promised to investigate their installation, as if there should be any debate that warning signs outside primary schools are anything but a necessity, 20mph speed limit or not.

But for reasons which aren’t clear, the standard “school keep clear” markings on the road were also overlooked, and it will be at least year before all the necessary legal processes are completed before any painting can go ahead.

Work on the new school on Windrush Drive started in October 2020, so it’s not as if there wasn’t time to sort it out. Maybe if the SNP-Labour administration hadn’t insisted on the roads department sticking up cones up where they weren’t wanted this situation might have been avoided.

It’s road safety, Jim, but not as we know it.

John McLellan is a Conservative councillor for Craigentinny/Duddingston

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