More than 5,000 people put forward their views in a major public consultation aimed at shaping how Scotland’s Capital looks, feels and functions for generations to come.
Yesterday Transport Convener Councillor Lesley Macinnes expressed her thanks on the city’s behalf to everyone who took the time to complete the online survey or to have their say at one of the many events held during the eight-week consultation, which came to a close on Monday.
As well as nearly 4,200 responses submitted online via the Council’s Consultation Hub – the second highest number of online responses ever submitted to a consultation on the Hub – around 1,000 people sent their comments by email or came along to public drop-in sessions promoting the Edinburgh: Connecting our City, Transforming our Places consultation over the past two months.
The consultation, which launched on 17 September, sought views on three linked placemaking projects currently under way, led by the Council: the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation, the City Mobility Plan (successor to the current Local Transport Strategy) and plans for Low Emission Zonesin the Capital.
A separate but related consultation about proposals for regular car-free ‘Open Streets’ events also closed earlier this month, attracting almost 700 responses.
Cllr Macinnes said: “This project promises to be a real game-changer which could enable us to make some really transformational changes to our city centre and town centres, for everyone’s benefit.
“We had a tremendous response to the consultation and on behalf of the whole team, I’d like to thank everyone for making the time and effort to take part. Your feedback will be invaluable as we take the three major projects forward and you will truly be able to say that you helped to shape the future of this great city for generations to come.”
Vice Transport Convener Councillor Karen Doran said: “This is a genuinely transformative project and something which has been much needed for many, many years. The scale of public engagement and participation shows just how important it is that we get this right for Edinburgh.”
The consultation was supported by numerous partner organisations and with funding from the Scottish Government through Sustrans Scotland’s Community Links programme.
Matt MacDonald, Head of Infrastructure for Sustrans said: “These schemes make sure that the city centre and the streets across the city have people at their heart, enabling them move around easily and safely.
“We’re very glad to see so many people have responded to the consultation. These ideas and comments can now be taken on board and incorporated to make sure these changes benefit everyone that lives in, works in or visits Edinburgh.”
The project team will now go through all the responses to the consultation, identifying key themes and using the feedback to work up detailed proposals for each of the projects, with a view to carrying out further public consultation in mid-2019.
A report focusing on the outcomes of the consultation is due to go to Transport and Environment Committee early next year.
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