We are currently working that up, though addressed to TEC and TRO Sub conveners - but Paul Lawrence also a good addition to that list and point taken about cold, hard, dead trees.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
TRO Sub-committee
(55 posts)-
Posted 2 months ago #
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I have never heard of Councillors being involved in detailed decisions on materials and layouts for other road schemes.
In fairness, occasionally someone will query whether it is really imperative that so much money is spent on setts.
I did find myself wondering earlier what would happen at planning committee (also quasi-judicial) if a councillor asked whether the applicant was sure they could afford what they were applying to do.
Posted 2 months ago # -
@Frenchy - At planning committee, any answer given by an applicant about funding would have to be disregarded by decision makers as it is not directly concerned with the development or use of land.
Posted 2 months ago # -
To me, the most salient point is that the Rosehill cycle defenders are not relevant to the TRO. They aren't regulated like signage and can be installed without a TRO at all, and conversely if the new TRO fails to be approved in time, while the double yellows may have to be burned off it doesn't follow that the defenders have to be removed.
Since the defenders can be added or removed without any regard to the outcome of the TRO it feels irrational for the committee to put such weight on them
Posted 2 months ago # -
This morning we delivered an Open Letter co-authored by Spokes and edi.bike, and co-signed by sixteen other Active Travel organisations in Edinburgh, to the City Chambers - by bike, of course.
A bit more context over here:
https://buttondown.com/edi.bike/archive/edibike-an-open-letter-to-the-city-of-edinburgh/
Posted 2 months ago # -
Article looking over some of the bits from the reports issued for 4th September TRO Sub meeting:
https://edi.bike/articles/2025-08-31-looking-ahead-to-tro-sub-4th-september/
Includes a few interesting finds on:
- Number of injury claims due to travelling safely infra (some 20-21, massive reduction since, none since '23)
- Criteria and aims for the rolling upgrades programme
- Table in report of all upgrades and prospective dates, up to 2034
Posted 2 months ago # -
EAST AREA ETRO PASSES, without even a vote. Deborah Paton robustly steering process to focus on restrictions and not materials; Cllr Lang visibly retired to the inevitable outcome.
The evil cycling lobby gets the goods once again!
Posted 2 months ago # -
NORTH, Arboretum PL and WEST ETROs PASS also - heck yes.
Posted 2 months ago # -
well done and thanks!
Posted 2 months ago # -
Great news and thanks for all the hard work put in behind the scenes - you can all make a difference!
Posted 2 months ago # -
“Deborah Paton robustly steering process“
Good to hear
Don’t think CEC was quite what she expected - she was part of ‘making stuff happen’ at Glasgow Council
Posted 2 months ago # -
More detail…
“
Dear friends,
Thrilled to tell you that thanks to our efforts and the diligence of CEC Officers, the East Areas ETRO passed to be made a permanent order at today's meeting of the TRO Sub-Committee.
(Brief break for celebratory dance)
Head of Transport, Strategy and Partnerships Deborah Paton took the lead on introducing the report and answering questions, robustly laying out not only the importance of the context of the Travelling Safely schemes and recommendations of Officers, but also that the contents of the order is focused not on the materials used, but the parking, waiting and loading restrictions needed to make way for them. This was presented within the legal context of making orders, which is pretty hard to argue with, even for our friends in the Lib Dems :)
There followed some attempts by Cllr Lang to poke holes in the logic of the newly presented information on upgrades and costs, which were again robustly and professionally put away by Ms Paton, leaving very little room for the 'gotchas' and pontificating that we saw at August's 'special' meeting.
In fact, so well handled was the Q&A section of proceedings that a vote wasn't even necessary - no party moved an alternative position, and just like that, the East Area ETRO will be made permanent.
Mere minutes later, the North, West and Arboretum Place ETROs were made permanent in the same fashion.
There is no doubt in my mind that the scrutiny, delivery, press coverage and sheer volume of organisations backing the letter made the difference here for cycling in Edinburgh, and this is one of those rare times I've finished watching a committee meeting with a smile on my face. Thank you for lending your time and your voice to this action.
Have a brilliant day - I know I will.
“
Posted 2 months ago # -
Oo-er missus, I got a rather huffy email out of the blue from Cllr. Lang now he's "no longer prejudicing himself" by responding. Apparently the "substance" of my email was entirely false, and I have been misled! He's very frustrated that we have all been given a "false impression", apparently, and there was never any danger at all of the cycle lanes being taken out, because they were only considering parking and loading restrictions not cycle lanes?
I gave it the reply it deserved...
Posted 2 months ago # -
Interesting… I don’t see a lot of reason for huffing unless his intention was to defeat the ETRO being made permanent!
All of this I think comes down to the semantics, in the end. Travelling Safely schemes were implemented on a temporary basis using permanent materials. Somewhere along the way - because the lane defenders are not very pretty - these have been conflated, and suddenly it became about temporary materials, which given the lifespan of a Rosehill Rubber Cycle Lane Defender is updwards of 10-15 years, isn’t accurate.
I’m also very much amused by the very folks that could have made trouble for North and West having to recuse themselves because they had made public comment on them before.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Oh wowee he's really not happy about being cast as the villain of the piece. In fact, he's the HERO dontcha know!
"thanks to my questioning and scrutiny, we also now have a detailed, costed and timetabled plan to upgrade the infrastructure to make it even safer for cyclists"
It's a Big Win, apparently, and all thanks to ol' Kevin, Friend of the Cyclists.
Posted 2 months ago # -
"thanks to my questioning and scrutiny, we now have a rushed and approximate plan — as well as a very narrow window within which to make the orders permanent — to upgrade the infrastructure to make it even safer for cyclists, who were never at risk of anything other than me filibustering it out of existence in the first place"
There, I fixed it.
Posted 2 months ago # -
"thanks to my questioning and scrutiny, we also now have a detailed, costed and timetabled plan to upgrade the infrastructure to make it even safer for cyclists"
And an admission here that the current "temporary" infra is indeed safer than the prior layouts
Posted 2 months ago # -
Ha - good point!
Posted 2 months ago # -
Months-long?
“
Months-long saga ends after Edinburgh councillors make Covid-era traffic calming measures permanent
“
Posted 1 month ago # -
there was never any danger at all of the cycle lanes being taken out, because they were only considering parking and loading restrictions not cycle lanes?
But surely the parking and loading restrictions are necessary for the lanes to be in place? If Kevin Lang thinks they aren’t needed then it’s game on for putting bike lanes all over the city and we can forget about TROs - win!!!
Posted 1 month ago # -
I usually don't post emails in their entirety but this takes the ****ing biscuit:
Officers admitted back in May that they didn’t have an agreed budget, had not put together detailed costs, and had no sense of what would happen when. This was all provided in the updated papers TRO committee got today.
I think that's great progress and I've had emails from other cyclists who have told me how pleased they are that we've now got such firm commitment now.
Absolutely bloody shameless. The man could stand in front of God himself and lie without a twitch.
Posted 1 month ago # -
After the last couple of weeks I can’t commit any further energy in Kevin Lang’s direction other than to say he’s all he’s cracked up to be, i.e an utter charlatan.
Posted 1 month ago # -
“
Remarkably, considering the delays that plagued the last few months, no other councillors spoke at all during the meeting, other than the committee’s convenor, Labour councillor Margaret Graham, who pointed out that the schemes have improved road safety, before moving the successful motion to make them permanent.
“An incredible meeting, decided in minutes after inordinate delays/deferrals at previous meetings,” Spokes wrote on BlueSky shortly after the decision was made.
“One intervention by councillor Lang, quickly disabused by officers. No one else spoke! The Edi.Bike/Spokes campaign has blindsided councillors!”
“
https://road.cc/content/news/risk-cycle-lanes-saved-last-minute-315773
Posted 1 month ago # -
Meanwhile Mad Jack McMad that runs the cafe down Silverknowes has transferred his bile to the time it is taking to get his road back in use for his car and also the bad buses
Posted 1 month ago # -
Oh well, don’t suppose they’ll be looking for evidence…
“
Reform council leader halts bike lane plans and announces county-wide review to see if they’re “actually worth it”
“
https://road.cc/content/news/reform-council-conduct-review-see-cycle-lanes-worth-315747
Posted 1 month ago #
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