CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Traffic Chaos - Whitehouse Road / Brae Park

(11 posts)
  • Started 9 years ago by HankChief
  • Latest reply from kaputnik

  1. HankChief
    Member

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3171296/Harry-Potter-author-JK-Rowling-causes-four-days-travel-chaos-installing-temporary-traffic-lights-Leylandii-bush-trimmed.html

    Harry Potter and the prisoner of the traffic jam: JK Rowling causes four days of travel chaos after installing temporary traffic lights so she can have her Leylandii bush trimmed
    Resident near the Edinburgh mansion believes the huge bushes stop Harry Potter superfans peering into her home
    But the already massive wall of Leylandii bushes grow up to three feet a year and so need to be trimmed annually
    The size makes it a major job so a four-way traffic light system was introduced which has caused tailbacks for miles

    Apols for the link to not everyone's favourite chipwrapper, but thought it might interest a few...

    Posted 9 years ago #
  2. Stickman
    Member

    TRAFFIC CHAOS!!!!!

    Posted 9 years ago #
  3. gembo
    Member

    FURY as JK trims her bush.?

    Posted 9 years ago #
  4. Right now a Daily Wail editor is kicking a sub for not coming up with that as the headline.

    If you ever feel the EEN is getting a bit too full of hyperbole you do just need to read the Wail. Fury and chaos abound. I love that they mention her flattening a neighbouring 70s house that she bought, to extend her garden, and that the other residents met to discuss the plans. Then didn't oppose them.... The insinuation as well that the hedges are only there to ensure her privacy (as if that's a bad thing anyway, given rags like the Wail would definitely take every opportunity to by long lens photos to try and somehow cultivate a story out of it), when she's owned the place for a few years and the hedges have clearly been there much longer.

    It appears anyway that she has an obligation to trim them twice a year.

    Surprised the Wail managed to avoid a dig at the cyclists in the picture going by. But this is typical fodder, get a few photos, probably make up some quotes, create a story (the best I ever saw in the Wail was a pic of Orlando Bloom picking up his son, and.... That was the story, that Orlano Bloom had picked up his son - there was another cracker about Isla Fisher and Ali G on holiday, and that they were keeping a low profile as they liked to stay out of the public eye, especially with their two kids with them etc etc, so the Wail illustrates all of this by having purchased photos from a pap who had taken the photos with some monstrous telephoto, the Wail not dealing in irony terribly well).

    Sorry, went off on one there - the second that hateful, xenophobic, sexist, celeb-obsessed rag is shut down the better. If I were in charge, so on and so forth....

    Posted 9 years ago #
  5. gibbo
    Member

    Maybe it's just me, but couldn't they do this trimming from inside her compound, rather than from the road?

    Also, if it's going to be 4 days every year, isn't that pushing your luck a bit?

    Stee

    Posted 9 years ago #
  6. How do they trim the outside of the hedges from inside?

    And the four days isn't under the control of Ms Rowling, unless she's also a gardening works supervisor in her spare time and organised the work directly. She's obligated by the council to keep it under control, she asks the experts in, the experts get the necessary permissions to put up the lights, they carry out the work to the timetable they've set out to the council.

    So I can't really see how she's 'pushing her luck'?

    And as one commenter said, if she didn't get the work carried out, and the hedge became completely overgrown, spilling out over the pavement, she'd be getting slated for that.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  7. cb
    Member

    It's not like she planted the hedge although I guess she likes the privacy it provides.

    The previous owner was the infamous demon dentist, referenced in the first post here.

    They were the ones who sold of much of the land to build Templar's Cramond. I thought it was one of these houses she bought and knocked down but they date from the 90s (or even 00s) rather than the 70s.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  8. acsimpson
    Member

    I've been wondering what the cones are for. As they were in the gutter while I travelled to work I assume the road closure is avoiding rush hour too but you can't expect the Wail to report that even if they bothered to find it out.

    "Traffic Chaos as drivers queue to join queue"

    According to the planning portal and CEC atlas it was definitely one of the Templars Cramond which became the garden extension including the kids tree houses.

    Interesting that despite a shiny new entrance shouting about the house's name they are very careful not to put her name on any of the planning applications.

    Interestingly the historic planning application includes a refusal for an entrance from Braepark Road which include amongst the reasons
    This would be to the detriment of pedestrians and other road users, especially cyclists as the main cycle route passes the proposed access.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  9. AKen
    Member

    I note that JK's house is also very handily placed for the no. 41 bus stop.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  10. Snowy
    Member

    I think the lights are overdoing it a bit. There's plenty room for the gardeners' cherry picker and to still have a lane of traffic going in each direction. It's a wide enough road.

    Posted 9 years ago #
  11. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Ladders are so 2000s

    Posted 9 years ago #

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