The Living Streets Edinburgh group organised a ‘street audit’ in Tollcross on 25 and 26 September.  The aim of the initiative was to help the local community identify improvements to local streets in a systematic way and campaign for improvements.  Thirteen people took part, with Living Streets supporters and members of the public joined by people from the Tollcross Community Council and the Edinburgh Access Panel.

The focus was on Home Street and Lochrin Place – streets which will be improved shortly during works to link the cycle network from the Union Canal to the Meadows. The chief recommendations were to:

• improve pavement surfaces;
• remove unnecessary fixed obstacles (signage poles, redundant phone box etc);
• better manage movable clutter (A boards, bins etc);
• introduce a proper cycle parking plan to meet demand (on street where possible);
• make enforcement effective – for example, cushioning of scaffolding, management of waste bins and parking controls;
• install dropped kerbs and tactile paving consistently and properly;
• ensure that pedestrians can cross the street easily at signalled crossings (especially at Tollcross itself).

A meeting with council officials to discuss the findings will be organised soon and we hope to see improvements introduced this financial year. Living Streets Edinburgh hopes that this audit will encourage other local communities to organise audits of their streets throughout the city, to identify improvements to the design, maintenance and management of the walking environment.

The full pdf report can be downloaded here (3.3mb) – Tollcross Street Audit