CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
@Ed1
So depressing reading that.
Roads that were formerly quiet are now being turned progressively (regressively?) into rat-runs, aided in part by Google Maps (which I admit does an amazing job of finding the fastest route, no matter what the cost to society)
As soon as one rat-run is shut down, another will pop up. We will never be rid of the plague...
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She pledged a series of new towns would be established
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“If the campsite, retail, and recreation facilities are rubber-stamped, it would set a dangerous precedent and send out a clear message to every developer in Scotland that Edinburgh’s greenbelt and outstanding conservation areas are up for sale.”
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As much as I don't like greenbelt development I have to suspect these campaigners have ulterior motives. Anyone citing increased congestion on the city bypass as a reason not to develop a fairly small leisure facility has not thought their argument through. A few hundred extra (mostly) off peak trips will not even be noticeable compared to the current volume.
@acsimpson
I kind of assumed the cow fields along Gilmerton Station Road were green belt until the executive homes started to sprout. No objections from Swanston or bypass-users to my knowledge.
I'm going to propose an Edinburgh Southern Peripheral Route from Haddington through Green Cleuch to Balerno and on to South Queensferry. Four lanes plus hard shoulder. On stilts. Vital to well-being in the Lothians.
I kind of assumed the cow fields along Gilmerton Station Road were green belt until the executive homes started to sprout
I thought that I'd moved out of Edinburgh when we moved to Eskbank. But looks like we'll be absorbed back in.
@amir
It'll be like the Channel Tunnel completion when the guy from Persimon reaches over from his scaffolding and shakes hands with the guy from Cala Homes.
Lothianville will be born.
Will Edinburgh become Midlothian like the good old days, or will Dalkeith/Bonnyrigg/Loanhead become City of Edinburgh?
Four lanes plus hard shoulder.
Sorry IWRATS, you are out of touch. 23 lanes is now de rigour.
IWRATS, you are out of touch
That is my primary goal.
@IWRATS: I kind of assumed the cow fields along Gilmerton Station Road were green belt until the executive homes started to sprout. No objections from Swanston or bypass-users to my knowledge.
As far as I can see e.g. here it was green belt up until the Edinburgh Green Belt Study in the mid-noughties - though shown as Grade 5 quality (Grade 1 being the highest quality). The cooncil atlas now shows the green belt boundary in that area as being on the south side of Gilmerton Station Road, and kinks further south to avoid the industrial units at the east end of GSR before kicking back NE on t'other side of Gilmerton Road.
This report about the Edinburgh Green Belt Study identifies that area as part of the "Burdiehouse farmland" and states:
There is limited capacity for residential development on the shallow south east facing slopes above Burdiehouse village, and west of the A701, and also on the north west facing slopes above Burdiehouse Burn, and north of Loanhead.
Development has certainly gone ahead in the two areas identified in that statement, but there's nothing in there about the Limekilns development on the other side of the A701 at Burdiehouse, or the Gilmerton Station Road one,or the one to the north of the Lang Loan - all of which occupy land which was previously shown as green belt but isn't any more.
Remember, though, that from 2011 the "safe pair of hands" in Westminster (one blue, one orange amber) declared a "presumption in favour of sustainable development". I can't recall whether Scotland had, at the time, the option to take a different path. I do recall that no-one could find out what "sustainable" was supposed to mean in that context (there was a strong suspicion in certain quarters that all it really meant was "profitable"). AFAICS the issue has been before various courts a number of times without a useful clarification being forthcoming.
So, basically if it's "Grade 5" greenbelt then send in the bulldozers? Looks about right for what's planned around Edina at the moment. Shortly to be followed by downgrading of "Grade 4" to "Grade 5" as, well, there's all that new housing nearby, no point keeping it as a "Grade 4", and so on, until there is concrete as far as the eye can see, Blade Runner style...
The development at Craigiehall Is up for planning permission in principle next week. Officers have recommended refusal - expect fireworks.
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“Miller Homes have been quite open for some time about their wish to build potentially thousands of homes in West Edinburgh, particularly around Kirkliston, on land currently designated as green belt and therefore against current council policy for development.
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Swathes of green belt in the heart of England have been earmarked for new homes for people who may never exist, in a trend fuelled by the drive to double the number built annually nationwide, campaigners have warned.
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“Almost every house has young families in, but there is literally nothing here for kids at the moment,” said Denning, 23, as a ferocious storm lashed the windows of their living room in Palmerston Heights. “They have to play on the road. Sometimes we move all the cars, so they at least have somewhere to run around.”
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They do little to encourage cycling and walking. The architecture is standardised and undistinctive, with affordable housing sometimes concentrated in particular areas, rather than mixed in with private homes.
Denning and Green, who are both in the armed forces, said residents in Palmerston Heights needed to use cars nearly every day because there were few amenities within walking distance. “You have to get in a car to go to McDonald’s or KFC. The nearest pub is 20 minutes away. It’s not like popping over the road,” said Denning.
Other residents voiced similar complaints. A mother in her 30s said there was nowhere for kids to go on the estate. “People drive really fast around here,” she says. “I’m a bit of a worrier, so they can’t go out on their scooters as much as I would like.”
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With the electricity grid being largely de-carbonised in Scotland
Hmm. Not sure about that. The UK grid currently averages around 200gCO2 per kWh. Which is about the same as gas at ~200gCO2 per kWh.
Good piece about recent findings that UK house price growth wasn't driven by a lack of supply https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2020/01/evidence-and-persistence-of-mistaken.html
There's obviously a discrepancy between the macro and the micro, and Edinburgh seems to plan to grow it's population by 100,000 which will require new housing
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Edinburgh City Council insists that it does not want to open up green belt sites for new development, with brownfield sites that have been previously developed the authority’s “preferred option”. But five green belt sites have been identified as potentially becoming new housing sites – along with a host of brownfield sites in the urban area, which could be part of mixed-use developments.
Officials have warned that to pursue a brownfield strategy, compulsory purchase orders could be used to free up land for housing if engagement with the land-owners fails.
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The high density flats at the old tannery at Balerno have the painters in. Lanark Road West set for even more COngestion. Gonna get in the top ten as turning into a canyon
@toomanybikes: Interesting that the article contrasts the fiscal and economic arguments vs the political ones. The latter included, at a certain time in the fairly recent past, blaming house price inflation on population growth due to immigration - arguably helping to fuel some of the sentiment that led us in to the unfortunate position we will be in from the first of next month.
The Scot Gov (we love green belt to be built on fire in your appeals). Has approved in principle the first phase of the David Murray Garden City
Who will live in this town?
Garden Citizens. Maybe people who are turning into shrubbery like Tessa Thompson in Annihilation.
@wingpig or indeed The Knights Who Say Ni.
Not local, but quite entertaining...
and illuminating.
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