CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

West Craig Housing Proposals - Consultation 28th April

(8 posts)
  • Started 8 years ago by acsimpson
  • Latest reply from acsimpson

  1. acsimpson
    Member

    This dropped through our letter boxes today.

    Taylor Wimpey are holding a pre-application consultation event for their West Craigs development on the 28th from 2pm to 8pm at the Marriot Hotel. This is for 250 houses on the field adjacent to Maybury Road immediately north Craigs Road.

    There is a few more details here:
    https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/proposed-developments/scotland/city-of-edinburgh/west-craigs-maybury

    They are hoping the LDP approves it as a housing site later in the year and plan to submit a planning application after such an event to ensure it isn't declined on a premature basis again.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  2. acsimpson
    Member

    This is tonight if anyone is interested. I plan on going but hopefully the more suggestions of bike friendly development the more likely they are to listen.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  3. HankChief
    Member

    Just popped along and for once can't find too much to complain about...

    The Craigs Road / Maybury Rd junction would be opened up and made into a 4 way traffic light controlled one with pedestrian crossings.

    Another pedestrian crossing further South on Maybury by the East Craigs Rigg cut through.

    A green route (think landscaped path) from Craigs Road/Maybury Rd junction diagonally South West to Turnhouse Road and ultimately to a new bridge over the railway and on to the new station.

    A couple of challenges with this.

    1. They don't own all the land to Turnhouse Road or the Station, but another developer does and it's in their interest to do so as part of their plans.

    2. There is no entrance to the station from the North East side of the tracks, so for a city bound train, you'll need to cross over tracks on the new bridge and then cross within the station.

    3. I can't recall from the station plans how you would bypass entering the station to go from the new bridge to the A8 Underpass and the Gyle. Possibility that you would need to enter the station and so dismount.

    Done right this green route could be a far more pleasant route for North Edinburgh commuters travelling to the Station /Gyle

    All in all, not a bad one for active travel.

    It wasn't detailed plans so still one to watch their (& the neighbouring) planning application have them in.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  4. acsimpson
    Member

    HankChief, It's not the worst development, although at the moment this is just pre planning so as you say we need to keep an eye on it.

    There were a few things I thought worth commenting on:

    1) Regardless of the "Green Corridor" the council is making them build through the site I think they should also be improving Maybury Road. I've said it before but Currently the only reason for parts of Maybury Road to have two lanes is for queuing and speeding. Given that the latter is illegal and the former is only done towards the lights in each direction there is plenty space for a segregated lane the full length of Maybury Road. Indeed the northern end wastes this space with a large hatched area in the middle of the road. I realise that most of the road is outside the scope of this development but I think this is probably a case of now or never with the council. Once this development and those to it's west are in they will probably be adding filter lanes and if the space for these aren't taken from this development site now it will be too late.

    If the road is left as it is then I also fear the northern pedestrian crossing will become a staggered affair while if the road is narrowed it could be a single stage crossing.

    2) The consultants described a lot of improvements but most of these appeared to be the responsibility of a future development. This seemed to me to be putting undue pressure on certain development sections which will therefore likely be the last to be built. For instance the New bridge/station access on the railway will not be built or contributed to by them so the "Green Corridor" is actually just a dead end at the back of the industrial estate at the moment. I would like to think they could at the very least connect it into or around the industrial estate thus giving it purpose.

    3) There is currently just one road access planned from Criags Road which seems to be the best option. Especially as they will be upgrading the Craigs Road/Maybury Road junction to become a full 4 way junction. My only thought about this is whether anything could be done to dissuade traffic going straight on over the junction and past the school during rush hour.

    As an aside Mrs acs suggested they should just demolish the old(new) Craigmount school and build a new one on the West Craigs site. It is at or near capacity already and needs substantial building work done just to keep it open.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "I've said it before but Currently the only reason for parts of Maybury Road to have two lanes is for queuing and speeding. Given that the latter is illegal and the former is only done towards the lights in each direction there is plenty space for a segregated lane the full length of Maybury Road."

    Indeed!

    I was there recently for the first time in ages. Most unpleasant - speed and close passing.

    Caught up with those that passed and a lot more too.

    That lorry did a particularly wide overtake, but it had the space to do so. I imagine there are two solid lanes for longer at 'rush' hour - which is NOT a good reason for maintaining the capacity.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  6. acsimpson
    Member

    It's not always like that:

    This was during the "Rush hour" (17:45) in the other direction from the pavement next to where you took your photo.

    Despite living "on" it I don't travel on it every day so others would be better placed to comment on the queues. my suspicion though is queues are longer to the Gyle in the morning and from the Gyle in the evening.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  7. jonty
    Member

    Could there be scope to upgrade and better connect the existing path that parallels the northern half of Maybury Road? I cycled it for the first time earlier this year and, despite bumpiness and narowness in places, it seems like it has the potential to be a decent AT corridor.

    Posted 8 years ago #

  8. acsimpson
    Member

    jonty, There's a thread about the East Craigs' path network somewhere which Hankchief started. Currently cycling isn't officially allowed on them, although I have never known anyone complain about considerate cyclists there. Getting them reclassified would be the first step along with adding a number of dropped kerbs at key entry/exit points.

    Although those paths link to other quiet stretches most of the way from Barnton to Maybury it involves lots of convoluted twists, turns, chicanes, road crossings and non segragated parts so they are not a viable alternative to a fully segragated path the full length of Maybury Road which would be so easy to construct and goes exactly where people want and already go and would only have a positive effect on Law abiding motorists.

    Posted 8 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin