New funds for cycling and walking infrastructure awarded to City of Edinburgh Council must be used wisely if traffic jams and unsafe roads are to be avoided as lockdown lifts, the Scottish Greens have warned.
City of Edinburgh Council has been awarded £5m as part of the £30m Spaces for People fund, to make social distancing and active travel possible as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
The funds are possible because of the budget deal won by the Scottish Greens, which saw the active travel budget raised to £100m for the first time ever.
However, Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors across Scotland have already resisted the establishment of temporary safe spaces for walking and cycling, prioritising congestion over common sense.
Green MSP for Lothian, Alison Johnstone, has urged City of Edinburgh Council to put public safety, air quality and the economy first by investing the funds in a way which keeps people moving.
Alison Johnstone MSP said: “I welcome the fact Edinburgh has applied for and been granted £5m to make our streets safer. This funding can make a real difference here, but only if it is invested wisely.
“If people avoid public transport in the near future, there is a real danger our streets will be clogged up with traffic jams, causing dangerous levels of pollution and preventing anyone getting anywhere.
“New infrastructure must be visible and useful not tokenistic, such as on main arterial routes which people will need when they start to go back to work. It also needs to be given the option to become permanent once the benefits become clear.
“Roads exist to serve people, not just cars, and there is some incredible work being done in France, Italy and across Europe to redesign them to keep people moving. I urge City of Edinburgh Council to ignore the retrograde naysayers who are obsessed with 1960s-style town planning and look instead to the needs of citizens.”