Category Archives: News and Events

Have your say! Protection and maintenance of Edinburgh’s setted streets

(adapted from an email from Edinburgh Council)

The City of Edinburgh Council is working in partnership with Edinburgh World Heritage and Historic Environment Scotland to develop a strategy for the protection and maintenance of setted streets.

Stone setts add significant historic and cultural value to the streets of Edinburgh and are an important feature of our cityscape.

We have a duty to protect the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site, Conservation Areas and other historic parts of the city. This protection includes the setting of Edinburgh’s many listed buildings, where setted streets are an integral part of their identity and authenticity.

However, when setted streets are not properly maintained, they can have implications for walking, cycling and driving. Damaged setts are often replaced with alternative materials like tarmac as a temporary solution. This can result in an unsightly and uncared for appearance.

Have your say

To help inform the strategy we’d like to know what you think about setted streets and their value to the city. We are also interested to know what impediments, if any, you think setted streets can have on our movement.

You can give us your views until Wednesday 11 October 2017 on our Consultation Hub.

Scottish Government’s ‘Making Places’ funding

(adapted from a communication from the Scottish Government)

Community groups, third sector organisations and local authorities are invited to apply for Scottish Government’s Making Places funding. The initiative encourages communities to participate in the development of their local
places.

Since 2011-12 the Scottish Government has run a grant scheme that helped to fund the delivery of design charrettes in communities across Scotland. Charrettes bring together the community, other key stakeholders and design
professionals to develop viable proposals to improve their place. However, the Scottish Government recognise that the charrette approach is only one method of enabling participation in placemaking.

Communities have different needs at different times and may require support not just in developing a vision for their place, but also at the stages before and after this. Continue reading →

Picardy Place is changing: ‘what it means for you’

(with thanks to The Spurtle for alerting us to this)

Together for Edinburgh (a consortium of City of Edinburgh Council, Edinburgh St James [i.e. developers TH Real Estate], Laing O’Rourke, and the Scottish Futures Trust) has invited ‘important stakeholders’ (i.e. locals) to be told ‘what [the changes to Picardy Place] mean for you’.

Sessions will be at Valvona & Crolla Vincaffè, 11 Multrees Walk

  • Friday 22 September (4pm to 7pm)
  • Saturday 23 September (10am to 4pm)

The Spurtle is concerned that ‘there is no mention on the invitation of you telling them what you think about it, or of contributing to planning democracy by describing what you’d like to see at the start of the design process. As far as we can see, it will be all one-way traffic’.

 

Consultation launched on Building Scotland’s Low Emission Zones

(adapted from a communication from Transport Scotland)

On 6th September, Transport Minister Humza Yousaf launched a consultation on Building Scotland’s Low Emission Zones (LEZs).

The Scottish Government is seeking views on how best to put in place LEZs, following a commitment made yesterday to introduce LEZs into Scotland’s four biggest cities by 2020. Additionally, the Scottish Government will shortly announce the location of the first LEZ which will be put in place in 2018.The consultation will be available via the Transport Scotland and Citizen Space website <https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/transport-scotland/building-scotlands-low-emission-zones/start_preview?token=6c977cc2d011560b41897523c5ccbc5bd163f224> until the 28 November 2017. Views can also be shared on Twitter using the hashtag #lezconsultation. Continue reading →