Trams, Transport and Trust in the Council.
At least two of these are vital to the city but, sadly, at the moment they’re all the dock.
The most important of those is a collapse in trust, because it harms everything else the Council wants to do.
After the fiasco surrounding the development of a tram route through the city the people of Edinburgh simply don’t trust the council any more to deliver any major transport project.
What’s more, they don’t trust them to even get the small things right as far as transport and traffic are concerned.
That is something I’ve been hearing from more and more people in recent weeks, and is a problem we urgently need to do something about.
Earlier this month I organised a consultation meeting on Transport as part of the wider public discussion on Labour’s Council manifesto – Moving Edinburgh Forward: Together.
People from all walks of life and with an interest in transport in Edinburgh came to that meeting, perhaps because the opportunity to be heard seemed so rare to them these days.
The response was so positive that today I’m launching my own special ‘transport blog’. http://lesleydoestransport.blogspot.com/
The meeting debated 60 different ideas of their own for improving transport in our city, and agreed together on six priorities for transport in our city, which can be seen in the panel (right).
Labour has already committed to the creation of a Transport Forum. That’s because I believe, if we are to both keep Edinburgh in the forefront as a prosperous city, we need to listen to the its people about what an up-to-date transport policy would be.
And that means that first on the agenda will be those six ‘people’s priorities’.
It is perhaps most important that an agenda like that will put some common sense – some ‘people first’ sense - back into the transport department, because in all the dismal confusion over the appalling delivery of the tram project we’ve lost sight of the everyday things, the things that make the city a better place to live and work.
However, it is also clear to me, and to most of those who came to the consultation meeting, that Edinburgh must face up to some big transport questions if we are to stay prosperous.
One of the biggest concerns people raised was the fact that it often takes longer to get across the middle of the city from north to south or east to west than it does to commute to the middle of the city from Fife, East Lothian or West Lothian. No wonder people are moving out of the city.
To counter this, we can provide more family affordable housing on ‘brownfield’ land in the city, but first and foremost we must make it easier and quicker to get about.
The number of people out and about in the heart of the city - what the shopkeepers call ‘footfall’ – has dropped by over one-third in ten years. That’s a disaster for all of us who want our wonderful historic centre to thrive.
We need to call a halt to edge of the city shopping development – and persuade the Lothian councils to do the same.
But at the same time we need to make it much easier, safer and more pleasant to get around the city centre, on foot or by bus, and much easier to park too, preferably off-street.
We have one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world. People who come to visit us say what they like doing most is ‘just walking around’. At the moment that can be a bit of a hardship. I want Edinburgh to be a pleasure for everyone to spend time ‘just walking about’ – and spending some money in the shops too!
To me, and to many at the consultation meeting, achieving all that means making sure our public transport is the best that it can be, offering a real choice to people in how they get into and around our city. It’s important to keeping good jobs in our economy as well as to our everyday lives.
I think we need to look hard at how we can make our buses - which we all own – even better. And, yes, I think we must continue to look at other means too. Even trams.
But transport is too important just to leave it to the experts. That’s what has got us into the mess we are now.
It’s time for the politicians to say – let’s make sure the people are heard too.
Where to now?
A recent consultation meeting with members of the public agreed six priorities for transport in the Capital:
Provide good quality and safe pavements for pedestrians, paths for cyclists and roads for motorists;
Reassess the bus routes in and out of the city and the possibility of routes around the suburbs;
Co-ordinate the utilities who want to dig up pavements and roads, and enforce – through legal action if necessary – the quality of their work;
Improve the speed of buses;
Expand the 20mph limit to all except the main roads in the city;
Set up a transport forum, open to everyone and not just experts, to consider the future of public transport in the city.
Councillor Lesley Hinds is a former Lord Provost for the City and speaks on Transport for the opposition Labour Party in the Council.
Lesley, I'm a member of another party, but would like to see whatever party gains overall control tackle the poor provision of buses to the A90 corridor out to Barnton and East Craigs, we used to have 3 buses that served the corridor, but only have one full time (41) and part time 32 - it's pathetic compared to the south side of town or any other main corridor.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, we should note that all parties on the Council agreed to sign the contract for the construction of the trams. In addition, Audit Scotland gave the project a clean bill of health in 2007, as ackowledged by Alex Neil. The SNP/Lib Dem administration then took responsibility for it!
DeleteSecondly, the Labour Group have in fact apologised for the mismanagement of the project, the delays and the subsequent impact on the city centre and Leith Walk. This despite the fact that we had no responsiblity for managing the project.
Thirdly, our support for Lothian Buses is well documented.
A programme of cameras covering bus lanes is about to be rolled out, which I hope will help. I'll pass your concerns onto the appropriate authority.
DeleteThere was talk of a crackdown on bus lane parking at peak times but little seems to have changed, at least not on my regular route from North Bridge to Dalkeith Road. Often the same vehicles parked in the same place day in day out. Clearly the rules aren't being enforced, and this creates a vicious circle when more and more people see that they can block the road without being penalised.
ReplyDeleteThe junction of South Bridge and Chambers Street, for example, so often has a van parked in the inside lane, pushing people into the right turn lane and blocking traffic right back beyond the Royal Mile, that it's usually quicker for me to walk to Nicolson Street from North Bridge at 5 o'clock than to get the bus.
What can we do to enforce the rules better and get traffic moving again on these key routes?
I'm disappointed that considering the awful disruption caused to the city and especially to Leith for no benefit, that all you have here is 'Mom & Apple Pie' platitudes. I was expecting a serious challenge to the current administration on transport given its an open goal politically.
ReplyDeleteAn apology for inflicting the damage on the city in 2007 with the assistance of the Tories & Lib Dems would be a good start.
A guarantee to preserve the best bus service in the UK by removing any link to the Tram service finances would go down well too.
We all know that the trams are going to cost the city taxpayers a fortune to subsidy. What are Labour policies in this regard?
Why did CEC under your control commission the heaviest trams available and reject alternative cheaper,lighter and greener options?
Is it true that its the heavy trams that led to all the 'unexpected' utilities diversions & over-runs?
Was really shocked to read about the proposed withdrawal of the 48/X48 service in the Evening News, and of course about the proposed fare increases on Lothian Buses. I use that route regularly and it is often extremely busy. What is at the heart of this sort of service reduction and what can we do to protect regular bus services?
ReplyDelete