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Pentlands to Portobello cycle/walk path?

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    My bold

    “

    Tenth Birthday AGM - Monday 18th June at 7pm in the Faith Mission Centre, 584 Gilmerton Road, EH17 7JD

    Speaker - Ross Woodside from Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust on 'The Pentlands to Porty Pathway, for which we have now won feasibility funding from SUSTRANS

    Update on Bothy purchase

    Copies of local history booklet available on the night for all who want one

    Birthday Cake will be available - obviously!

    This year's AGM will take place on the 18th June at 7pm. This year we're having the AGM at the Faith Mission Centre on Gilmerton Road. The Mission is well served by public transport and has ample parking.

    This year we will have a speaker from our good friends at Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust. We have been working with the trust for many years and thanks to some help from the trust we've won funding from SUSTRANS for funding for a feasibility study to create the Pentlands to Porty Pathway.

    “

    Friends of Burdiehouse Burn newsletter

    Posted 5 years ago #

  2. Frenchy
    Member

    The Mission is well served by public transport and has ample parking.

    Not for bikes! That I've noticed, anyway.

    Nearest are the half dozen or so racks at Gilmerton Crossroads/Lidl.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  3. gembo
    Member

    @frenchy, there is a handy railing outside the cafe plenty of room for bikes. (Inside the perimeter fence I guess to stop people falling off the Ramp up to the Cade) Not that it was designed for this purpose but boy have I adapted it that way over the years (we use the building for seminars due to the cheapness, there is a banner that says Jesus Is Lord, every time we do evaluation we get a good amount of feedback about that banner).

    Posted 5 years ago #

  4. neddie
    Member

    From: The Friends of Burdiehouse Burn Valley Park Nature Reserve, Parklife - Issue Number 49:

    Pentlands to Porty Pathway - Feasibility Work Starting

    Desktop Study will Lead to consultation

    Work has begun to map out a potential route for the proposed pathway leading from the source of the Burn in the Pentlands to the sea at Joppa. Ironside Farrar is an environmental consultancy and has been appointed by Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust to carry out the work and the local consultation are expected to start shortly. The new pathway will incorprate many miles of existing pathways and will replicate the wonderful Water of Leith Walkway, albeit on a smaller scale. We will keep you informed as the process evolves.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    “

    Pentlands to Porty Pathway
    There has been a meeting with Ironside Farrar, which is carrying out a feasibility study on the proposals drawn up by The Friends Group for a Pentlands to Porty Pathway. The good news is that much of the route to the sea is already there. Also, there are ambitions from Midlothian Council to create a pathway on the south of the city bypass that links through to the Pentlands. There is also a major new biking facility being proposed at Hillend, which would work extremely well with our proposals. Indeed, a linking pathway would help with the viability of the proposed centre.

    Sadly the proposals we’ve seen don’t follow the route of the burn beyond Burdiehouse and we have raised concerns in that regard. The Friends committee will be considering the issues raised in due course and making a formal submission. We will keep you informed of developments.

    “

    Friends of Burdiehouse Burn newsletter

    Posted 5 years ago #

  6. Frenchy
    Member

    Getting across the bypass is the trickiest bit if the plan is to follow the burn. I went down and had a look at the Lothian Burn culvert last week anyone over about four feet tall would have to duck to walk through it, and I imagine it'd be prohibitively expensive to change that.

    Posted 5 years ago #

  7. chdot
    Admin

    Did you actually go in?

    Think there’s more headroom if not silted up.

    Of course ‘in the countryside’ four feet would be regarded as a luxury..

    Posted 5 years ago #

  8. Frenchy
    Member

    No, didn't leave the bank, I'm afraid.

    Actually, looking at the photo I took, perhaps four feet is too pessimistic:

    IMG_20190303_142054

    Posted 5 years ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    I *think* it’s got a flat bottom, but very long time since I went through (with a bike).

    You can see it’s silting up.

    All sorts of possible ways of making access ‘easy’ and ‘convenient’ to those prepared for a bit of adventure.

    MUCH ‘safer’ than the Elie Chainwalk (for instance).

    Posted 5 years ago #

  10. gembo
    Member

    Thank you to @lmacinnessnp and kids from the valley park bike club to help launch the pentland to portobello active travel feasibility

    Posted 4 years ago #

  11. Frenchy
    Member

    Thank you to @lmacinnessnp and kids from the valley park bike club to help launch the pentland to portobello active travel feasibility

    I've been trying to figure out what this was actually about. My understanding was that the (a?) feasibility study was completed very recently. However, last week's launch seemed to be announcing the start of a study, rather than the completion of one.

    Is there about to be a second (more detailed?) study?

    Posted 4 years ago #

  12. chdot
    Admin

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/new-pentland-hills-to-portobello-green-route-aims-to-mirror-water-of-leith-walkway-1-4999472

    Posted 4 years ago #

  13. Frenchy
    Member

    http://www.elgt.org.uk/projects/walking-cycling/pentland-to-portobello-feasability-study/

    More details, including proposed route.

    EDIT: "Page not found"...was working yesterday.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  14. jsh
    Member

    It's back now

    Posted 4 years ago #

  15. Trixie
    Member

    That's a lot of doubling back to run the gauntlet of going through the Jack Kane. I'll pass on that.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  16. neddie
    Member

    I see they are bigging-up the Water of Leith Walkway, yet part of that has been inaccessible for years due to council inaction on the landslip near the Modern Art gallery.

    And plenty of other parts inaccessible by bike thanks to steps and private developments...

    Posted 4 years ago #

  17. toomanybikes
    Member

    The unpleasantness of Jack Kane is due to be reduced with the introduction of a velodrome and other refurbs though. A path would help, more people moving through makes places less intimidating.

    Overall a lot of meandering for the route though. Still, would make a currently pretty uncyclable journey a lot more palatable

    Posted 4 years ago #

  18. gembo
    Member

    taking a while to upload

    WoL Path meanders like billy-Oh

    BUT big chunks can be cut out by using the towpath

    ambition is good

    Posted 4 years ago #

  19. ejstubbs
    Member

    Hmm. I'm not particularly impressed that the proposed route from Burdiehouse to Swanston uses Frogston Road West which, in the westbound direction, includes a surprisingly energy-sapping climb shared with 40mph traffic. The green alternative route at least avoids the traffic, but still has quite a tedious climb on what is currently a landrover track (and which is not infrequently strewn with spiky hedge trimmings that lacerate inner tubes, as I have found to my cost). I think that, to be successful, the project is going to require more than a bit of signage and some localised infrastructure to deal with obvious hotspots - such as adequately wide shared use pavements for some stretches, and more cycling-friendly surfaces on others.

    The orange alternative route west from Straiton involves crossing the double roundabout junction for the bypass just at the point where traffic speeds up in anticipation of heading up the westbound sliproad. If they have to go that way (which I think would need something rather more substantial than a Toucan crossing) then it seems a bit of a shame not to be able to make use of the new extension to the cycle path along the route of the old Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin railway to Shawfair - although it probably does go a bit far south if your destination has to be Portobello. In that respect the orange route that branches off the green route beyond the south-west corner of the new housing development on that side of Burdiehouse Road might be preferable. (I have a recollection that there is some development planned for the land to the east of Biggar Road, which doesn't seem to have taken in to account in the plan.)

    Posted 4 years ago #

  20. Frenchy
    Member

    @ejstubbs - I spoke (a while ago) with the consultants who did the study, and I'm 99% sure the proposal is to put in a segregated cycleway along Frogston Road.

    If I remember right, the proposal at the neuk of Biggar Road and the bypass was a Park & Ride, but that's apparently gone very quiet. An "aspirational" cycle path following the yellow line between Biggar Road and Straiton roundabout is included in Midlothian's Active Travel Plan.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  21. ejstubbs
    Member

    @Frenchy: Looks to me as if the planning permission for the Park & Ride expired in 2011 (though I freely admit to being a rank amateur when it comes to understanding these things). However, that would seem to be supported by the fact that In 2012 permission was granted for a "hotel and restaurant/bar and formation of associated works, car parking and access" occupying some of the same land as had been earmarked for the P&R. However, AIUI that would also have expired by now.

    Posted 4 years ago #

  22. chdot
    Admin

    Of course *just* needs a walk/cycle bridge over bypass...

    Posted 4 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    https://twitter.com/cyclesouthedin/status/1217872939292528643

    Posted 4 years ago #

  24. gembo
    Member

    Once at porty, catch the Brian souttar hovercraft to Kirkcaldy?

    Posted 4 years ago #

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