I'd like to thank chdot for inviting Harts and I to a stakeholder meeting in today in his lieu in the run up to the public sessions in the next couple of days.
Format was a presentation of the public presentation on the consultation hub, and then a round table session, and Q+A.
It was made clear over the course of several questions at the end that the Picardy project is being considered in total isolation - particularly from Leith Walk.
Harts asked a series of quite pointed questions which pretty much sum up as "Why do we have to build for traffic, against policy, why not fix what is wrong now?" to which the reply was "we can't build anything but a giratory without breaking traffic management all across the city"
This was a callback to an earlier display of a traffic modelling video that showed doomsday levels of rat running with a "y junction"
It's nice that they don't want to scope creep, but this justification was used time and time again to say "we can't change the plan".
In fact, the answer to every question was "this is the design we have developed and it is the best" - quickly followed by "the design will be revisited as and when a traffic strategy for the whole city centre is developed"
It's literally planning for failure.
Consensus in the room was do-minimum development of the middle site to keep maximum flexibility when the day comes that it's torn up and rebuilt again
It was stated that it is quite normal for major projects to begin construction before statutory processes of TRO and RSO are completed - can anyone fact check that? Work already carried out realigning kerbs to meet unapproved layouts is a "project risk"
I had Alasdair Sim from SWECO on my table who was quite happy that most of the issues are a political concern and not an engineering one. His answers were mostly "Yes, that's possible, if that's what the council wants"
Consensus in the room was also that the current staging of the pedestrian crossings is poor and that there shouldn't be any "shared space" between pedestrians and bicycles.
Taxi rank is anticipated to be relocated to Little King St which to me is an eminently sensible place to put it as taxis can rank around the one way system at great length, and it will connect well to the new shopping centre.
It's really important you reply to the consultation AND attend the events.
It is important that you object to the gyratory as a whole as this will feed into the political decision in January.
While it is unlikely at this point that we get anything but a gyratory, there actually seems to be a willingness to change the arrangement of cycle lanes, pavement, and public space. So detailed feedback on removing pedestrian/cycle conflict and catering for both user groups' needs is key.
posts
