Welcome to Living Streets Edinburgh

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Edinburgh, with its generally dense population and walkable distances, could be a European exemplar of a pedestrian-friendly city. But the many sensible walking-related policies of the City of Edinburgh Council too often don’t translate in practice into a safe and attractive walking environment on the streets. Motor traffic continues to dominate the vast majority of the city’s streets – yet there are clear economic, environmental and social benefits in prioritising pedestrian movement within a high-quality public realm.

Our overall aim is to:

Promote walking (including ‘wheeling’) as a safe, enjoyable, accessible and healthy way of getting around Edinburgh.

To this end, we want to see:

  • walking given the top priority over other forms of travel in all council transport and planning policies;
  • a reduction in the volume of motorised traffic and its impact on people using the street;
  • better designed and maintained pavements, road crossings and other pedestrian facilities;
  • more effective and joined-up monitoring and inspection of the walking environment by CEC;
  • planning policy which encourages dense, sustainable housing over car-dominated, dispersed development;
  • more effective implementation of pro-walking policies ‘on the ground’.

Our priorities for action in 2025 are to:

  • Campaign for increased budgets (capital and staffing) for the
    pedestrian environment by the City of Edinburgh Council, especially
    to:
    • widen footways;
    • tackle pavement clutter;
    • improve priority for pedestrians at signalled crossings;
    • improve accessibility by installing dropped kerbs and continuous
      footways.
  • Secure better enforcement of controls on parking (including new
    ‘pavement parking’ provisions) and speeding.
  • Support specific local campaigns for place-making and traffic
    reduction.
  • Develop our work on walk-friendly environments at and around
    schools.
  • Influence planning policy and practice to aid walking and wheeling
    and reduce motor traffic.
  • Grow the number of our supporters and range of our campaigns.

If you would like to get involved in our work in any way, please email us at:
 edinburghgroup@livingstreets.org.uk

 

Draft Minute of Living Streets Edinburgh Group (LSEG) Annual General Meeting 2025

Public Event,

Date:-  Thursday 29th May 2025.

Location:- Quaker Meeting House, Victoria Street, Edinburgh.

Present:-  Mike Birch, Roger Colkett, Robert Ainsworth, Patrick Miner, Johanna Jokio, Peter Brown, Mark Jacunski, Councillor Chas Booth, Andrew Heald, John McKenna, Rosemary Burton, Ruth Findlay, Jane Brown, John Russell, Isobel Leckie, Stephen Jenkinson, Harry Garrod, Mark Boggis, Morag Jones, Rachael Revesz, David Hunter, Hilda Sim, Kirsty Sangster, Ashleigh & Kirin (Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living), Rosie Sinclair & Mairi (Equal Footing Porty).

Meeting Started:-  18.35 hrs

David Hunter (LSEG Convener) chaired the meeting.

  1.  Apologies were received from Harald Tobermann (EBUG) and Anja Wolf.
  • The draft Minutes of the LSEG 2024 AGM were approved. There were no questions or matters arising.
  • The LSEG Treasurer Isobel Leckie presented the accounts. Isobel reported a balance of £680.61.  Expenditure over the year 2024/2025 was only £134.75 This was almost exclusively on room hire plus minimal bank charges.
  • David Hunter presented the Convener’s Report. The past year had been very busy with some successes.  Many opportunities also remained to be tackled. 
  • Rachael Revesz talked about the campaign she had been involved with over the last couple of years for the successful Leith LTN.
  • David Hunter summarised how LSEG had been organised over the last few years. A committee had been in place, but this had changed to a more informal network.  The plan for the future was to try to share the workload amongst a team. 

Names were noted of volunteers who are prepared to attend an initial team planning meeting:-  Mike Birch, Mark Boggis, Hilda Sim, Rachael Revesz, Roger Colkett, Johanna Jokio, John Russell, & Isobel Leckie.

Isobel Leckie was re-appointed as Treasurer.

David Hunter said he was willing to remain in the role of Convener but that he would like to transition out of the role across the next year.

Hilda Sim proposed a vote of thanks to David Hunter for his hard work on behalf of pedestrians. This sentiment was warmly applauded by the meeting. 

  • Councillor Stephen Jenkinson, Convener of the City of Edinburgh Transport and Environment Committee, gave a short talk about recent work undertaken by the committee relating to pedestrians.
  • Ashleigh and Kirin of the Lothian Centre for Inclusive Living talked to the meeting about the realities of travelling around Edinburgh if you use a wheelchair or have impaired vision.
  • Councillor Jenkinson answered about a dozen questions from the meeting on a variety of pedestrian related topics including Street Design Guidance, the lack of pedestrian data, Bus Stop improvement programme, TVL funding & vehicle idling fines

Meeting Closed:-  20.05hrs

Mark Boggis/30.05.2025

“We are all pedestrians”: Transport convener addresses Living Streets Edinburgh AGM

Council Policy, Public Event, , , ,

Following criticism about “vanity prestige projects” being prioritised over pedestrian access, Stephen Jenkinson addressed our AGM

Edinburgh Council’s Transport Convener has sought to reassure Living Streets Edinburgh Group supporters that pedestrian access is a top priority for his committee.

“We need to ensure that we keep [pedestrians] front of our minds and decision-making when we implement projects and developments across the city,” Stephen Jenkinson, Convener of the Transport and Environment Committee at Edinburgh Council, told the volunteer group.

The comments at our AGM on 29 May follow concerns that the committee has given the go-ahead to what our convener David Hunter named “vanity prestige projects”, rather than focus on less expensive but more beneficial, pedestrian-focused projects.

Jenkinson acknowledged the concerns and added: “I would challenge that in a little way. I think the City Mobility Plan, in a grand sense, is about delivering big projects. The scope of a lot of those projects will include pedestrian and public realm benefits.”

The convener said that when he took over from his predecessor, Scott Arthur, now MP for Edinburgh South West, he discovered a large list of proposed projects listed under the 10-year City Mobility Plan, and tasked council officers to prioritise them.

He explained that many schemes have to compete with other local authorities for external funding, and the funding framework has moved from multi-year to single-year.

“I want to reassure you that pedestrian priority is a priority not only for me but many members of the committee and the council. It isn’t a zero-sum game when it comes to moving people and vehicles around the city,” he added.

Helping everyone to get around the city

The need for pedestrian priority is urgent. Two disabled person’s rights advocates from the Lothian Centre for Inclusive Learning – Ashleigh and Kirin – told the AGM that floating bus stops, incorrectly placed dropped kerbs, a lack of space around disabled parking bays, and cycle lanes in the middle of pavements, all hinder those with sight and mobility issues.

Kirin, who has sight issues, praised the banning of advertising boards – a campaign led by Living Streets – but said there is still a lot of street furniture to navigate.

“I just want to get around the streets, just like you, but it’s trickier because I can’t see as well,” she said.

Kirin also joked about using her cane: “The pavement parking ban has been very helpful which has stopped us from scraping your cars!”

Positive noises from the TEC?

Jenkinson pointed out:

  • £4-6 million funding will be invested in the Granton Liveable Neighbourhood scheme, which will bring pedestrian benefits.
  • the 2025/26 budget for dropped kerbs has doubled to £400,000, thanks to Transport Scotland funding.
  • in response to concern that the council has frozen the footway budget this year, Jenkinson said the budget has increased 25% since 2022.
  • the success of the pavement parking ban means footways will generally see less wear and tear from vehicles.

Engine idling: Will the council act?

Jenkinson said he had also written to the Scottish Government to advocate for higher fixed penalty notices for engine idling, which currently stands at £20 and would not cover the cost of enforcing the fine.

In contrast, fixed penalty notices for pavement parking stand at £100 and have generated more than £244,000 in revenue for the 12 months ending February 2025 alone.

Living Streets Edinburgh convener David Hunter thanked Jenkinson for standing strong on no exemptions for pavement parking and for attempting to answer audience questions:

  • Will the Council monitor pedestrian movement, and use that data?
  • Will the Council follow other countries like the Netherlands and re-design junctions like Toll Cross before resurfacing them?
  • Will the Council re-consider removing the Braidswoods modal filters, which have successfully reduced daily vehicles from 10,000 to 6,000?
  • Will the Gorgie Liveable Neighbourhood retract its proposal to include floating bus stops?

Watch this space.

LSEG calls (again) for more investment in everyday walking

Council Policy, News, Press Release, , , ,

The Council’s Transport and Environment Committee on 22 May will consider a report recommending priorities to deliver the City Mobility Plan. We’re surprised, and very disappointed, to see no mention of some key initiatives which we were able to get included in the CMP delivery plan. Especially disappointing after the committee decided to freeze footway maintenance while increasing spending on roads, only last month. We’ve therefore sent councillors this message.

Dear Councillor

I’m writing in connection with the report on City Mobility Plan priorities, Item 7.5 on the TEC agenda for 22 May bit.ly/43ktlep  The recommendations do not adequately reflect the CMP’s ambition to effect “a transformational change in walking and wheeling in Edinburgh”.

Over two years ago, two new initiatives were introduced into the Active Travel component of the City Mobility Plan: ‘Action for Better Crossings” (ABC) and the “Edinburgh Accessible Streets Initiative” EASI). These programmes (both proposed by us) finally offered the prospect of a strategic, rather than piecemeal, approach to addressing some of the most fundamental problems with getting around the city as a pedestrian – for example:

  • the time that you have to wait for the green man at traffic lights,
  • the thousands of missing dropped kerbs on pavements,
  • narrow footways, 
  • pavement clutter, etc.

As we understand it, effectively nothing has been done yet to implement either initiative as a coherent programme. We had hoped that they would form a key part of this report. However, there is no mention whatsoever in the report of either ABC or EASI, despite Council having confirmed them as at the heart of CMP policy only last year (see attached).

Instead, some elements of ABC and EASI are simply noted as part of the ‘rolling programme’ in Appendix 4b. Paragraph 4.14 of the report states an expectation that these will be funded at “an overall level roughly equal to recent overall investment”. This isn’t good enough: there is no indication of how much money is budgeted for these schemes; certainly there has been no systematic investment at all in recent years in widening footways. Many of the other aspects like the pedestrian crossing programme and the crucial school streets reviews have huge backlogs owing to lack of resourcing.

These vital programmes need to be considered alongside, and on the same level playing field, as the active travel and public transport listed in Appendix 1. Councillors should be able to consider whether investment in school streets, road safety, ABC or EASI is more or less worthy than these projects, whether they be George Street, Hawthornvale-Salamander Street, the Lindsey Bridge or Dalry 20 Minute Neighbourhood. Otherwise the opportunity to consider where best to invest both staff time and capital funding is lost and a ‘silo’ approach is entrenched.

We also have serious concerns with the overly-complex methodology for assessing projects in Appendix 1. It gives no weighting to walking and wheeling (“top of the travel hierarchy”) and doesn’t sufficiently value schemes relatively modest but important to pedestrians such as Calton Road and the Causey. These projects fail to score highly enough only because work on them has already been “paused’ for years.

However, the fundamental weakness of the report is to take too narrow an approach to evaluating a limited set of projects. We would therefore like to see the report deferred perhaps for two cycles, and a new report brought forward with a more strategic approach to future investment, including the programmes mentioned above.

David Hunter

Convener

Council spend on roads outstrips funding for pavements

Council Policy, News,

Living Streets Edinburgh is calling for a re-set of capital spending to focus on everyday walking, following recent analysis of council budgets by the group which campaigns for everyday walking. While ‘walking and wheeling’ remains top of the transport hierarchy in theory, the percentage of the roads budget spend on footways has in fact fallen year on year since 2022.

Although there was a significant uplift in budgets for footway maintenance following the last council elections in 2022, as promised in the Labour administration’s manifesto, total roads spending has almost doubled. Carriageway maintenance (roads) budgets have continued to increase significantly. With footway budgets at a standstill since then, only 13% of the overall roads budget now goes on footway maintenance, compared to 21% in 2023.

Living Streets Edinburgh Convener David Hunter said: “We know that there’s a lot of concern about potholes and the state of the roads in Edinburgh, but it’s frustrating to see so little of the roads budget targeting pavement improvements. In every city neighbourhood, there are cluttered, narrow pavements full of trip hazards which make it hard for people to get out to the local shops health centre or to catch the bus.

We’re expecting the Council to announce its plans for spending on the City Mobility Plan and active travel shortly. If the Council is serious about getting people out of cars and supporting sustainable, inclusive local communities, it’s got to do more to improve local walking environments.”

LSEG 2024/25: Some highlights and key events

News, Public Event

Over the past year, since our last public meeting in May 2024, we’ve been busy!  Some key events and milestones:

May 2024

  • Met Cllr Arthur on our concerns about the impacts on walking and buses for major Meadows-George Street scheme (a theme for many other active travel schemes)

June

  • LSEG stall at Edinburgh Climate Festival, the Meadows. Lots of good conversations and new supporters enlisted.

July

  • LSEG FoI request reveals £85 million active travel underspend planned by Transport Scotland – subsequently, big cuts confirmed by Scottish Government.

September

  • ‘Polwarth roundabout project’ promoted by Merchiston Community Council secures initial funding from Council (£100k) with support from LSEG.
  • LSEG supports Sight Scotland’s call for ‘green man’ phase at Strachan Road (Blackhall) – one of 70+ junctions without any pedestrian facilities on at least one arm.

October

  • Met new Transport Convener, Cllr Stephen Jenkinson (following Scott Arthur’s election as an MP), and Interim Head of Place, Gareth Barwell (following Paul Lawrence’s appointment as Chief Executive) calling for more priority given to walking.
  • Corstorphine LTN, including wider pavements at the primary school, made permanent – minus the Manse Road ‘bus gate’.

November

  • LSEG comment on new Leith Connections cycleway (Hawthornvale-Salamander Street); plans again compromise walking with narrow pavements and poor bus stops.
  • Cowgate fatal collision leads to decision to bring forward evening closure to traffic from 10.00pm (not yet implemented).
  • LSEG establishes from BT the location of 80+ obsolete phone kiosks cluttering pavements which they are committed to removing.
  • Highlighted the problems for pedestrians remaining on Leith Walk and other streets after the tram extension to Newhaven; including challenging inaccurate measurements reported to council which understate how narrow some sections of pavement are.

December:

  • launch of ‘Roseburn-Canal’ (Dundee Street) cycleway: big improvement to Dalry community park and no negative impact on bus users and pedestrians!
  • long-awaited (ie years late!) pedestrian crossings installed at Stockbridge (Leslie Place) and Fountainbridge (Yeaman Place).
  • Met Lothian Centre for Independent Living, who are supporting a group of disabled people and carers advocating for more accessible streets.

January 2025

  • We established a clear process and understanding with the Royal Mail and council on the removal of unused ‘mail pouches’ which add unnecessary clutter to pavements

February 2025

  • Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) confirmed permanent. Significant credit due to our affiliated group ‘Liveable Leith’.
  • We responded to a major consultation on Princes Street expressing disappointment at the lack of proposals to increase the size of pavements and opposing the idea of a cycleway outside the shops, complete with floating bus stops.

March 2025

  • Stall at ‘Schools clean air’ project at City Chambers.
  • Engaging with Equal Footing Porty and supporting their deputation to TEC – another group advocating for accessible streets in Portobello
  • We secured a council motion (by Cllr Aston) calling for a major review of phasing of traffic signals, which have great scope to give more priority to pedestrians (and buses).

April 2025

  • Persistent – but ultimately unsuccessful – efforts to persuade the Council to increase budgets for footway maintenance, tackling dropped kerbs etc. We hope that they have made an impact which will influence future capital budgets. 
  • Commitment secured at TEC (by Cllr Booth) to investigate improved pedestrian routes through Gorgie/Westfield /Roseburn.
  • Welcomed the announcement to introduce significant traffic restrictions on the Lawnmarket/Johnstone Terrace once resurfacing works are complete this summer.
  • We spoke at a major event organised by the Cockburn meeting on city streetscapes on the design and management of the city.

Communications as at April 2025

Local mailing list: 359 members

Social media followers:

X (twitter):      4,999

Facebook:        1,900

BlueSky:            589

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