Tag: Rolling Update

Southside Newington By-Election on 3 September; canvassing underway. / St Patrick Square 16 June e-bikes collision with pedestrian triggers demands for tougher local enforcement against illegal, anti-social use of e-bikes and scooters. / Greenbank to Meadows Quiet Connection – Two traffic filters along Cluny Drive are removed and two junctions returned to their original layouts. / Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust annual report: ELGT 2025-26 Impact Report / Edinburgh by Numbers report – ‘Capital in good health, latest numbers reveal.’: Edinburgh by Numbers / Trams from Granton to the BioQuarter – Consultation and Market Research Report: Trams Report 18 June 2026

Edinburgh Lib Dems: https://www.edinburghlibdems.org/team/southside-newington

The Council is considering extending November 2026 Firework Control Zones (FCZ) to streets in a number of other areas in the city. A FCZ is already in place for Niddrie. Now, Gracemount, Liberton and Moredun are under consideration. Check the detail and respond to the Council consultation here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/firework-control-zones The consultation closes on 5 August 2026.

This is a big annual event. Peffermill Road will be protected on Saturday 11 by a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order to secure ambulance and bus routes. Private vehicles should be removed from the controlled areas. A security team will handle the flow of visitors. There will be music on until 10pm on Friday and Saturday, 9pm on the Sunday.

GPCC Member, Peter Jones, brought back the following summary report from the 11 June AGM: Living Streets is making steady progress in promoting local schemes for safer walking and ‘wheeling’. One recent success is the improvement of pavement quality in Broomhouse. On a broader front, there is general criticism of the size and width of cycle lanes, where pavement space is often compromised and where lane layouts and shape make for pedestrian confusion (e.g. in Leith Walk). Tree-planting would offer better delineation than ‘zig-zag’ painted lines. There was support for the idea that the Visitor Levy proceeds should be used almost exclusively for pavement repair and upgrade. Removing trip hazards and putting real effort into promoting ‘Easy Walking’ initiatives for folk who can’t get around easily should be the essential priorities.

The Traffic Regulation Orders Sub Committee (TRO SC) approved on 12 May new parking restrictions at the ‘loop’ in Rankin Drive. We are advised by the Council’s Network Management and Enforcement Unit that restrictions are likely to be implemented by end-September. GPCC notes the clear opposition to the statutory regulation, citing a range of reasons, voiced by a sizeable number of Rankin Drive residents, to Elected Councillors and to the Convener of the Transport & Environment Committee. During the public advertisement stage of the TRO process, GPCC called for a pullback of the tabled proposals, to offer a balanced and proportionate solution to the challenges of the road layout at the ‘loop location’, and to recognise the practical needs of immediate residents for adequate parking provision. The approved restrictions run counter to GPCC’s assessment of what is actually needed.

Two by-elections will be held in the Southside/Newington and Portobello/Craigmillar wards following the resignations of Councillors Simita Kumar and Kate Campbell.

Residents will go to the polls on Thursday 3 September to elect one new councillor in each ward. The current electorate is 24,304 for Southside/Newington and 27,347 for Portobello/Craigmillar.

On 15 July the formal Notice of Election will be published, and the Election Timetable, Election Notices and Nomination Papers will all be accessible on the Council website

https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news

The Road Safety Unit at the Council advises that a request for a pedestrian crossing can now be made using an online mapping tool Request a Pedestrian Crossing . Here, members of the public can indicate the location where they would like a crossing to be installed. (This includes signalled crossings.) The map will be left open all year round.

Requests will provide the Road Safety Team with a list of suggested locations. Officers will collate and assess the requests on a quarterly basis. If the application is successful, a crossing will be prioritised according to its score and updates will be reported on the Road Safety website on a yearly basis, when all sites have been assessed and those for delivery identified.

The broad horizon of community council interests spans city and local place, space, amenity and wellbeing. On the latter two counts, in particular, we should recognise the powerful work conducted, largely behind the scenes, by the Edinburgh Partnership (EP). Anchored by the CEC Community Planning Management Group and chaired by the City of Edinburgh Council, the EP is the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) for Edinburgh City. It’s a statutory obligation of the Local Authority to have a body like this in place.

The EP’s wide array of members includes NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, Scottish Enterprise, the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council, Edinburgh Affordable Housing Partnership, Skills Development Scotland, and many others. Edinburgh Association of Community Councils has a representative place.

The EP anchors the process by which public bodies work with local communities to plan, resource and provide services to improve the quality of people’s lives, and to reduce the outcome gap for those experiencing the greatest inequality.The EP mission is that Edinburgh should be a ‘thriving, connected, inspired and fair city, where all forms of poverty and inequality are reduced’. The EP works across the full spectrum of 'life in the city’ and the wide demographic spread of the city’s residents. A huge commitment goes into this work on the part of core EP members.

As a Community Planning Partnership, the EP is required to publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), a framework for EP’s priorities and the delivery of its mission. The LOIP is supplemented by a small number of Locality Plans targeted to areas of greatest disadvantage in the city. The Community Planning Management Group draws in the work of seven Strategic Partnerships focused on particular elements of LOIP delivery.

The current EP Local Outcomes Improvement Plan 2018-2028 has been kept up to date with a 2026 ‘refresh’, reviewing best practice, partner commitments and community engagement outcomes. It holds to the original three partnership priority outcomes – Enough money to live on; Access to work, learning and training opportunities; A good place to live.

Work on the next Community Plan (LOIP) will begin now, designed from the ground up, in the face of new challenges to communities and to city life from some fundamental shifts in the social, economic and environmental landscape.

As a community councillor or as an interested city resident, it’s worth taking a quick look at what the Edinburgh Partnership does and what it tries to achieve. A lot of effort goes in here for the benefit of the common good. We should be more aware of it.

https://www.edinburghpartnership.scot/

https://www.edinburghpartnership.scot/downloads/file/288/10-june-2026

The CEC Future Trams Team point to the 18 June Transport and Environment Committee meeting and the early milestone report analysing the 2025 consultation and market research programme on the outline project. View the Committee Agenda and Item 8.1 here: https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=136&MId=7661&Ver=4 .

A Strategic Business Case will be presented at the 10 September 2026 Transport and Environment Committee, marking the point where the decision is made on whether to progress further to the Outline Business Case stage.

Look at the background to the project here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/futuretrams

We learn from Ian Murray MP that the closed Delivery Centre is to be taken over by an established Edinburgh architectural practice for use as a head office and studio.