Locals urge council to "stop low traffic neighbourhoods and cycle lanes" to help cut down costs, but council claims responses not a "representative sample of residents"

Locals are calling for Edinburgh City Council to stop spending on low traffic neighbourhoods and active travel measures such as installing new cycle lanes and widening pavements, in an online survey and in-person engagement launched by the Labour-led council asking respondents for ways to cut back on costs.

The questionnaire, launched by the council to understand public opinion in the face of the £110m cuts to the city's services in the next five years, drew a total of 2,849 responses — half of which involved raising concerns about motor traffic on the Scottish capital's roads.

Locals were asked several questions in relation to what the council's priorities should be when deciding the budget, including 'where can we improve?', 'what ideas do you have for how the Council could save money?' and 'what service that you use or receive could the Council reduce or stop providing?'.

The most popular proposal to reduce costs, backed by 712 respondents, was to 'stop' the council from implementing Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), or the traffic filter schemes aimed at deterring motorists from using through-roads as rat-runs in Edinburgh, as well as the Spaces for People, the council's active travel initiative aimed at increasing and improving cycle lanes and widened pavements in recent years.

'Reduce active travel' was in second place with 588 mentions, followed by 'cut managers / salaries' (255), 'stop Tram extension' (250), 'tourist tax' (243) and 'general efficiencies' (227).

> Cyclists fed up with "ridiculous" lamppost blocking busy cycle lane for five months

While the council said it was the largest-ever response to a budget engagement process and the feedback has been "shared with services",  Edinburgh Live reports that it added that the survey was not a "representative sample of residents" and it was not possible to "extrapolate from this response what the views of all Edinburgh residents would be".

A report said: "Most participants suggested that the council could and should save money by reducing spending on various activities intended to encourage active travel, discourage private car travel, extend the tram, or reduce the presence of polluting vehicles in the city centre.

"There was support for increasing council tax and parking charges for those who could afford to pay them instead of reducing services, which were already felt to be “cut to the bone”. Participants called for a reduction in management at the Council, as well as generally making the organisation more efficient."

It added while many individual ideas were suggested, these were "often out-of-scope of council powers, or did not show a clear path to cost reduction or revenue increases".

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Meanwhile, Conservative Councillor Marie-Clair Munro from the ward Morningside criticised the council's comments claiming that the responses didn't represent the views of all Edinburgh residents. She wrote on social media: "I’ve been asked to pass consultations with far less engagement and told the results are a clear directive from Edinburgh Residents.

"The Edinburgh Conservatives are the only party who’ve consistently said we need to fix the roads and pavements before anymore grandiose schemes are implemented and the public agree with us. I continuely bring the issue up at Transport Committee and get nowhere."

Despite the apparent disillusion of the locals with the council spending on active travel, we have reported numerous issues with new cycling infrastructure in the Scottish capital. In March this year, cyclists frustrated with a "ridiculous" lamppost  blocking the middle of an intersection linking three new cycle lanes for the past five months urged the local authority to sort out the "pretty dangerous situation".

It became the latest issue with active travel infrastructure that is being constructed as part of the Trams to Newhaven project, and follows complaints about a "moronic" zig-zag cycleway design, insufficiently wide cycle lanes, a traffic light button that is unreachable for those on bikes, and bike racks that can be pulled out of the ground.

Locals also questioned another stretch of the Leith Walk cycle lane after painted infrastructure appeared barely the width of a pair of handlebars. 

At another section, the unreachable impracticality of a traffic light request button was pointed out. The set-up more commonly associated with pedestrian crossings, which cyclists are required to press to stop traffic to proceed, but that was positioned too far away from the road for bicycle riders to reach.

And most recently, the location of a proposed new tram line in Edinburgh, and whether it will be built on the city's roads or instead along a popular off-road cycling and walking route, has been a hot topic of discussion in the city, with a campaign group called Save the Roseburn Path opposing the off-road proposal, arguing that "trams should replace cars, rather than people walking, cycling and wheeling" and the path has "immense value" as a "fantastic green space and active travel corridor for walking, cycling running".