Tag Archives: roadworks

Traffic order: waiting restrictions, car club and disabled parking places

Edinburgh Council has released advance notice of a Traffic Order that will amend some waiting restrictions, car club parking places and disabled parking places. Overall, there seems to be very minor impact on the LCCC area.

The items within Leith Central CC’s area are

  • Abbey Street: Introduce 24 hour waiting restrictions to maintain access and the line of sight between motorist and pedestrians. (This might be just outside LCCC’s area.)
  • Albion Road/Albion Place: Introduce 24 hour waiting restrictions to maintain access and the line of sight between motorist and pedestrians.
  • Changes to disabled parking places in Waverley Place, Cambridge Gardens and Pitt Street.

Details are in bold on this Word document.

Outside LCCC’s area, the items with the most potential affect on LCCC’s area is

  • York Place: Extend loading/unloading prohibitions to allow buses to turn eastward in to York Place from Elder Street. (Drawing – PDF)

Public Meeting: Moving Around Leith Forum Tonight 7pm

Leith NP logo

Pothole

The Moving Around Leith Forum:

If you know of some pavement in dire need of repair, potholes in your street or just have some ideas on  how Leithers might get around their neighbourhood better, your presence at the the Moving Around Leith Forum tonight 7pm at MacDonald Road Library would be much appreciated.  The Moving Around Leith Forum gives an opportunity for people in Leith to voice opinions on what they consider to be important roads and transport issues in the area.  The idea of the forum is to gather views from local residents and businesses and they hope to see as many local people there as possible. 

This is a useful event if you want to talk directly to council officers who want to take your opinion into account before deciding what improvements in the road networks are necessary.

NB. tonight’s meeting will NOT be about Leith Walk as the re-development of that much-dug-up through route is being monitored by a sub-committee of  the LCCC.

Constitution St

By the way, the above photograph shows Constitution Street, the only street in Leith and I suspect one of a few in the country with its own blog, http://constitutionstreet.wordpress.com/.  Please  take a look at it.

The Walk struggles to keep up appearances

LOVERS of Leith Walk will need more tolerance towards her dowdy look as a makeover won’t be happening in the short term.  A major stumbling block to her revamp still remains. What some would call her bete noir, the tram, still lurks in the shadows.

Neighbourhood Manager for City Centre and Leith, Mike Penny, admits that the cards for a link to Newhaven are still on the table. “While it’s definite that the tram is going to St. Andrew Square, it is still said that the route could go right to Newhaven,” he said. “Thus anything significant needs that final determination. We have to wait for that. We have to hold back spending the money allocated for Leith Walk until that decision is made. Completion of that further tram extension could take some years yet.”

In the meantime, more alarming news emerges that further and final Scottish Water works must be carried out along the length of the Walk. Planning for this is at a late stage and works are likely to start later this year. These will last around 6 months and it is anticipated that work will be completed towards the end of 2012.

“We will then do a complete resurfacing of all of the road,” says Mike Penny. “That will cut out all that bumping over uneven surfaces which is such an inconvenience to everyone at the present time. We are very committed to a fundamental makeover of the Walk, but these last works have to be done first, then we can get under way. We plan to reinstate the famous landmarks, the Leith clock and the ‘pigeons’ during that period too.”

Several property developers who own large sites on the Walk and once may have had serious building projects in mind, have now changed their business plans. The company that provides student accommodation, Unite owns the big grey shell that is Shrubhill. “It would appear that the company no longer plans to develop the site,” says Mike “We have been informed that they are looking for a buyer. In the meantime we continue to discuss options for improving the appearance of the site. Hoardings will be reinstated soon and advertising boards established to add colour through the council’s Authorised Advertising Project; it seems less likely that the proposal for a vinyl cover of the whole building with a large image (as has been done in other parts of the city) will now go ahead.. The pressure to sell puts some limitations on some of the ideas, but we are continuing discussions.”

The Old Tram Depot next door to Shrubhill is currently being used as a storage facility for building materials too.  Leith Walk is still a work in progress. Those who love her colour and potential will have to wait a little longer for her return to the glory days.