Organisers of this weekend’s Fun Days and Galas will be keeping an anxious eye on the weather forecast. Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre’s Fun Day takes place tomorrow and West Pilton and Muirhouse Gala is on Sunday.
Fingers crossed – it might just be okay!
Tomorrow’s forecast: A chilly start then a mainly dry day with sunny spells. Cloud will bubble up in the afternoon with isolated showers developing across Lothian and Borders.
And Sunday? A chilly start but dry with sunny spells.
Here’s hoping …
Measures to introduce priority parking measures to the streets of Telford could be agreed by councillors at next Tuesday’s Transport & Environment committee meeting. Local campaigners are pleased that traffic and parking problems that have beset the area for years could at last be resolved.
Drylaw Telford Community Council has been seeking solutions to irresponsible parking in the area, and last year initiatived a survey of the area to gauge residents views on introducing priority parking measures. That October consultation was inconclusive, but the community council gave it another go and organised a public meeting in March.
The meeting was well-attended and there was sufficient support on the night to justify a second consultation in June.
This proved more decisive: 156 residents responded – and of these 154 were in favour of introducing a Priority Parking scheme!
Drylaw Telford Community Council chairman Alex Dale chairs the sub-group set up to address Telford’s traffic problems. He said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of recent consultation letter which resulted in a overwhelming favour for the scheme and I’d like to thank our members for all their hard work in advising the residents of the merits for introducing the scheme.”
He went on: “The sub group met last night to discuss this report and next stages. If the scheme gets the go-ahead next week Parking Operations will produce a detailed map of the area, showing where priority parking bays will be located and non legislated free bay and highlighting the single/double yellow lines propoals. The transport officials will be invited to this meeting to fully explain the proposals and our sub-group will then agree or amend. Clearly we won’t do anything until we know the result of Tuesday’s meeting but we are very hopeful that things will get moving in Telford soon.”
As part of the Scottish Social Housing Charter, all Councils and Housing Associations have to report how well they are performing to their tenants every year (writes James McGinty). They also have to ask their tenants how they would like to receive this information.
Muirhouse Housing Association held a tenants’ panel meeting to discuss this at Muirhouse Community Centre last night. The session was facilitated by Senior Housing Officer Ainan Groat.
There was a lively discussion and the panel gave their views on the type of information they would like to see and how they would like it to be presented.
All Muirhouse Housing Association tenants are welcome to join the Tenants’ Panel.
The Tenant Panel is made up of tenants who are interested in looking at MHA’s policies and services in a bit more detail – they are not an established group, but give advice based on their experiences of being an MHA tenant.
People on the Tenant Panel can give their views by coming to meetings, replying to questionnaires or by email – MHA uses this feedback to improve services and to influence policies.
For more information please contact Ainan on 336 5282.
James McGinty
A project that will create an affordable housing scheme for disabled veterans in Edinburgh is to receive a £250,000 funding boost. The scheme, which has been championed by the Lord Provost, will deliver five accessible homes in Salvesen.
The project, proposed by the Scottish Veterans Garden City Association (SVGCA), had faced a financial shortfall but councillors agreed yesterday to provide the funding from the Council Tax Discount Fund, which is ring fenced to support affordable housing.
The accommodation will now be built in Salvesen Gardens at an estimated cost of £800,000.
Edinburgh Veterans Champion, Lord Provost Donald Wilson, said: “I am committed to supporting veterans, and we signed the Edinburgh Armed Forces Community Covenant, which encourages integration between local communities and the Armed Forces communities, in 2012.
“A lot of work to address the city’s shortage of affordable housing is ongoing, and we have introduced changes to our lettings policy for Council homes to recognise the special difficulties that veterans are facing in particular.
“The length of time ex-service personnel have served is now taken into account when they are applying for Council homes, and work with the Edinburgh Garrison to provide housing advice and information to personnel before they leave the armed services.”
Several projects aimed at addressing a shortage in affordable housing are currently taking place in Edinburgh, and the Council delivered more than 1,200 quality, low-cost places to live in 2013/14.
Working with housing associations and house builders, the city council has invested £142m of public and private funding in house building over the past year, generating £107m for the local economy, and support for more than 1,900 jobs.
Move to simplify city centre journeys
Drivers heading for the West End from the south of the city and Lothian Road could find their journey simplified if the city council approves changes to current traffic management arrangements next week.
A review of traffic management in the city centre has been completed following the start of tram passenger services, and among the recommendations in a report to Tuesday’s Transport and Environment Committee is a proposal to allow all traffic to travel westbound from Hope Street (pictured above) to Queensferry Street, rather than buses only as at present.
Traders from the West End called for this in a deputation to the committee in March, when they pointed out that, with the removal of the left turn from Lothian Road into Shandwick Place, it had become difficult to access properties and businesses in the West End.
The report also asks members to give the go-ahead for further investigation into the option of introducing a right turn from Queen Street westbound into Queen Street Gardens East.
Another recommendation, which follows on from the start of the new Experimental Traffic Regulation Order in George Street, is to change the priority of Young Street from an eastbound to a westbound direction.
Residents and businesses here have expressed concerns about a perceived increased volume of traffic and in particular, more vans and heavy good vehicles, since the George Street scheme was first implemented earlier this summer.
Councillor Lesley Hinds, Transport Convener, said: “Now that trams have been running for a couple of months or so, it’s a good time to make any appropriate alterations to surrounding traffic management so that we can make it as straightforward as possible to get from A to B in the city centre.
“We know that West End traders have had concerns about access to their businesses so the proposal to open up Hope Street for all westbound traffic into Queensferry Street should make things much better.
“I was pleased to meet recently with residents and businesses in Young Street to hear how their street has been adversely affected by increased traffic since we started the ETRO in George Street. This narrow cobbled street is simply not fit for the volume and nature of traffic it’s been experiencing of late. Changing the one-way direction will help divert traffic away from Young Street and on to Queen Street, which can accommodate commercial and through-traffic far more comfortably.”
