Background
The City of Edinburgh Council intended to make changes to Brunstane Road, and other roads in the Joppa area, by the means of a Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) for up to 18 months. This allows for changes to be trialled ahead of possible permanent changes. The Council’s proposed changes are in response to concerns raised by a number of residents about increased volumes of traffic and other local traffic issues, and also consider feedback which was received at a local resident’s engagement event which was held in October 2019.
Portobello Community Council wanted to gather views from the larger community on both the Council proposals and a range of other possible interventions. We will collate responses and feed them into the City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Committee meeting where this will be an agenda item (some date after May 2020). The covid-19 lockdown has impacted plans, with this project now on hold with CEC
Results summary
The survey ran from 10 to 27 March 2020
It ended a few days into the Covid-19 lockdown
Vast majority were against the specific proposal to close Brunstane Road & Joppa Triangle changes (18% support; 80% against)
However residents at the top (south) half of Brunstane Road were supportive of the plans (82%), with the bottom (north) half broadly inline with the general results
Brunstane-Rd-Joppa-Triangle-Results.pdfCity of Edinburgh Council update
“As you will no doubt be aware, the council has been required to significantly re-focus its operations to meet the needs of the Covid19 pandemic resulting in the majority of our works being paused as we adapt and change our work flow to meet our emerging priorities.As we cautiously move towards recovery, a significant proportion of Transport staff have been working on taking forward the Spaces for People Project (SfP) which will provide assistance for local communities, especially in and around our town centres, to observe appropriate social distancing, promote safe travel and wherever possible aid economic recovery. At this stage, officers are currently reviewing how we take forward programmes of work across all council services within the context of the coronavirus and recovery for the city. However, we wish to reassure you that we are committed to ensuring that the Joppa Triangle proposals are reconsidered as soon as it is practicable and we have the resource to do so. We are aware that a significant amount of progress has already been made in gathering the views of local people, and wanted to update you as a key stakeholder group that we are keen to continue with the work when we can in order to ensure the best possible outcome for residents. This means that the previous plans to develop an Experimental Traffic Order (ETRO) and present that proposal at a Transport and Environment Committee have been paused, but will be revisited at a future date.”