Friday September 5th 2025
Covid traffic calming measures in Morningside, Edinburgh.
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Temporary traffic-calming measures implemented in the east of Edinburgh during covid will be made permanent, ending a months-long saga.
At the Traffic Regulation Orders Sub-Committee on Thursday, councillors voted to approve the change, which will see bus lanes, loading restrictions and other changes kept in place.
Some of the infrastructure installed at the start of the scheme will also be replaced, alleviating concerns that some councillors had raised.
The works are estimated to cost £433,000, and be funded through money set aside by the city’s transport committee for that purpose.
At other meetings of the committee, in May and August, councillors had been under the impression that all of the changes made needed a traffic order made to become permanent.
But at Thursday’s meeting, it became clear that not all the changes required a traffic order, and could stay in place under powers the council has.
Liberal Democrat councillor Kevin Lang asked officers: “Am I right in saying that the council does not need a traffic order for uniflow [cycle] lanes of this kind?
“And that, therefore, the question in terms of the orders that we are being asked to use is simply around the waiting and loading restrictions that are associated with those lanes?
“And the reason I ask those questions is that there has been assertions in the past that without this order, everything that has to be taken out.”
Council transport officer Deborah Paton said: “Yes, I believe that’s correct.”
Over the other two meetings where the changes were discussed, a major point of concern for councillors was the materials used for some of the temporary changes.
These included bollards embedded in rubber pads used to denote cycle lanes, among other pieces of infrastructure.
Many of the public objections to making the changes permanent, which councillors were being asked to disregard, surrounded the safety of this infrastructure.
Cllr Lang asked Ms Paton: “I am trying to understand in my mind the position of officers, as to whether what is there right now acceptable as set out in the report?”
Ms Paton replied: “To be clear, we are confident that what’s in place is safe and legal, as you’ve identified.
“We have also made clear in the report, where there were a small number of locations where we did identify a problem, those were rectified pretty quickly.”
She also said the report contained information about upgrades to be made to some of the initially installed infrastructure to make it permanent.
That report further included information on the number of personal injury and vehicle damage claims the council had received with regards to the temporary scheme.
It identified 31 total claims, with 28 being for personal injury and three for vehicles. But most of the claims were in 2020, 2021 and 2022, with only one claim in 2023 and none since.
Temporary measures were introduced across the city during Covid in order to enable social distancing while outdoors, and making it easier to walk and cycle in the city.
These included new cycle and bus lanes, widened footways and the closure of the ends of some streets to block them to through traffic, among other interventions.
As part of the trials, waiting and/or loading restrictions were put into place on parts of London Road, Willowbrae Road, Milton Road West, Duddingston Road and Duddingston Road West, King’s Place and Seafield Street.
In many areas, the restrictions were introduced around junctions and pedestrian crossings, however some longer stretches of restrictions were put into place on some major roads.
Additionally, a block on motor vehicles was introduced at the Milton Road West end of Southfield Road West, preventing cars coming off the A1 from entering the street there.
Bus lanes were also introduced on Milton Road West, and cycle lanes installed in some parts of the scheme’s area.
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