Spaces for People: Has Edinburgh Council learned its lesson? – Steve Cardownie

Tomorrow’s city council transport committee’s agenda is largely taken up with the Spaces for People (SfP) programme currently being rolled out throughout the city and designed, ostensibly, to introduce traffic measures to facilitate greater social distancing in the face of the current pandemic.

One aim of the Spaces for People programme is to enable people to travel around Edinburgh while maintaining social distancing

Several new schemes are proposed as well as modifications to some of those currently in operation.

The report under discussion points out that “following legal advice, it is considered that the measures set out in this report are a reasonable interpretation of the legislation and the various interventions are considered proportionate in response to the pandemic”.

So it would appear that lessons have been learned from having had their collective fingers burned when a legal challenge to the scheme in East Craigs was mooted by local activists, arguing that the proposals were too intrusive and far-reaching to be justified under Covid-19 measures, forcing the council into a rethink for fear that the challenge would succeed.

The report maps out the preferred next steps when it recommends that it is “proposed to assess the existing SfP measures to determine whether it is appropriate to retain or adapt measures beyond the period of the pandemic using separate legal powers”.

A consultation exercise “to seek views on the retention or adaptation of appropriate measures” is soon to be embarked upon.

Given the controversy that some of the measures have generated so far, it should make things interesting but it will be up to the public whether or not sufficient numbers respond to make the whole exercise worthwhile.

Watch this space!

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