Good Morning!

Just to let you know that we changed the look of the website.  This is because an annoying hyperlink kept crawling up the screen confusing and irritating folk reading the posts.

We hope you like the new theme ‘Misty Lake’, presumably depicting thick fog, hence the white background, clean and simple.   However, having only limited choice, the header photo is not very sharp, so we would really like people to send us a better one, one that shows Leith at its very best

So, if someone has a really good, high resolution photograph that is apt and is happy to let us use it, we would be delighted to have it as our banner.

Images should be at least 1015 pixels wide. Suggested width is 1015 pixels. Suggested height is 276 pixels.  Please email it to contactleithcentralcc@gmail.com.  If you don’t have the right size image, don’t worry, we can do the cropping for you.

With input from over 300 people and after a month of putting together a joint response for  the council’s Leith Improvement Progamme, eleven community organisations, including Leith Central CC, have joined forces with active travel campaign groups to demand that the council rethink its proposals for a multi-million pound facelift of Leith Walk and Constitution Street.

With this unprecedented joint submission all three Leith community councils, another three Leith-based community organisations, The Cockburn Association and four active travel organisations, the groups have teamed up  to persuade Edinburgh council to do more to boost the economic vitality of the area – by improving the public realm, and tackling the road safety and air pollution problems that affect the area.   The findings of last year’s Leith Links Gala consultations in which  hundreds of Leithers shared their priorities for the redevelopment of Leith Walk, were also included in the document.

Thanks to this unprecedented joining of forces there is now a single and unambiguous document that clearly sets out local priorities and aspirations for Leith Walk in detail.

While still in draft form, the document was available to anyone to comment on on-line, a unique process coordinated by local charity Greener Leith.

The full document runs to 42 pages and  aims to highlight improvements that the council could make to its current design proposals for Leith Walk and Constitution Street.  It is available online here: http://bit.ly/13tku4Y

Roland Reid, LCCC’s Secretary said “Leith Walk is not only one of Edinburgh’s top three streets, it is also the key artery running through one of the most densely populated areas in the city.  We are pleased to be part of this joint submission with so many other local and national organisations and hope that it will contribute to the revival of the vitality of Leith Walk that has suffered so much since the start of the tram works since 2007.

Some of the key points include:

• A 20mph speed limit to be applied to the length of Leith Walk to boost road safety.
• A complete redesign of many of the key junctions to make the street more pedestrian and cycle friendly.
• A zero tolerance approach to managing bins and redundant signage to get rid of the street clutter that blights the street.
• The installation of a protected bike lane on the full length of the southbound carriageway so that cyclists aren’t squeezed between buses and fast moving traffic as they travel uphill.
• An overhaul of the parking arrangements on the street to encourage more people to shop on the street and put a stop to dangerous double parking.
• The return of the “Elm Row pigeons” and a redesign of the public space at the Foot of the Walk.