Category: Travel and Mobility

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Latest news on Restalrig Road works

Here is the latest news from the Council on the Restalrig Road works (in response to a request for information from Leith Links Community Council, via Councillor Katrina Faccenda).

“….please find the following updates regarding the ongoing improvements on Restalrig Road.

The project began on 9 March 2026 and is divided into 8 phases (approximately 150m each.) covering Restalrig Road and Restalrig Road South Each phase consists of two parts:

  1. Civil Works: Improving crossing points and drainage (conducted under temporary traffic lights).
  2. Resurfacing: Improving the road surface (conducted under road closures).

Civil works are currently in Phase 6 (near Restalrig Park) and should be finished by 7 May.

Resurfacing began today (20 April) and is estimated to be complete by mid-July 2026.

While it may appear that little progress has been made, civil works are inherently slower and less visible than surfacing. To date, we have successfully upgraded 10 crossing points and vehicle crossovers with new tactile paving and dropped kerbs, and renewed dozens of gullies. The project is currently progressing to plan.

We are working closely with Lothian Buses to provide regular updates. Diversion details for the current surfacing phase were posted on the Lothian Buses website last week. We encourage residents to check both the Lothian Buses site and our dedicated project webpage for the most recent updates.

I can confirm this is a full resurfacing. The boundaries cover the area between East Hermitage Place and Sleigh Drive (ending just before the roundabout). Furthermore, once Restalrig Road is complete, we will resurface the section of Blackie Road between Summerfield Gardens and Claremont Road.

Due to safety concerns at the Claremont Road/Claremont Park junction, I will instruct our contractor to place no-parking cones to improve visibility and traffic flow while Restalrig Road remains closed. Please note that these cones will be advisory because there is insufficient time to promote a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO), so they will not be legally enforceable if ignored. However, we hope this visual deterrent will encourage safer parking behavior during the works.”

Stylianos Kapetanakis BEng MSc NECReg – Senior Engineer Transport Contracts & Design

Infrastructure ¦ Planning and Transport ¦ Place ¦ The City of Edinburgh Council

Planning and Transport, 1.7 , Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh EH8 8BG

Email: stylianos.kapetanakis@edinburgh.gov.uk

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LLCC meeting, tomorrow, Monday, 27 October, Duncan Place, 6:30 pm

The next meeting of LLCC will be next Monday, 27th October, in person at Duncan Place, at 6:30 pm.

We have important Guest Speakers from City of Edinburgh Council: Mr. Gareth Barwell, Interim Corporate Director of Place, and Mr. David Givan, Chief Planning Officer and Head of Building Standards.

They have agreed to come for a discussion on questions we asked them, including the following :

What is the vision – what is planned – for Leith, in the next few years?
Our area has been very profoundly affected in recent years by dramatic changes  – large scale new building developments, significant population expansion, tramworks, new CPZs and pending CPZs, Leith Connections’ road closures and partial closures and new cycleways, bus re-routings and diversions,’floating bus stops’ etc. (as well as more routine roadworks, planned utility works etc., often springing up with no prior warning, and no explanation to local residents & businesses) – but it sometimes feels to people in the local community that the various different departments at the council do not necessarily put together an integrated overview of how all these different schemes will interact with each other and do not consider the overall effect on local residents.  Is there an overall, connected, picture of it all, and of how all these schemes will interact with each other and affect local residents (intended and unintended consequences)?  How will it be monitored?
Basically – who is is in overall charge and taking responsibility for the aggregated effect of all these separate schemes?

The meeting is open to interested members of the local community.

Here is a link to enable remote attendance.
Secretary LeithLinks invited you to a Microsoft Teams Meeting:
LLCC October meeting
Monday 27 October 2025
18:30pm GMT

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Brace yourselves….

Sounds like there may be some Seafield related issues this week – two messages in today from Scottish Water –

(1) Dear stakeholder,

Veolia, the site operator at the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works, intends to undertake a routine cleaning of the storm tanks commencing tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd July. 

Conditions are forecast as favourable for the duration of the task.

Both SEPA and the City of Edinburgh Council have been informed.

We will issue a further update once Veolia has completed the task.

and

(2) Dear stakeholder,

I am writing to let you know about urgent sewer repair work we will be carrying out on Seafield Street in Edinburgh.

From Monday 28 July 2025 we will be closing one lane at the junction with Seafield Road so that we can carry out the work safely.

Temporary traffic lights will be in operation, and it is possible there may be some delays.

We anticipate completing the work within a week.

We would like to thank everyone affected for their patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Matt

 

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Next meeting of Leith Links Community Council, Duncan Place, 6:30pm, Monday 26 May 2025.

The next meeting of Leith Links Community Council will be held in person at Duncan Place at 6:30pm on Monday 26 May 2025.

Minutes of previous meeting are here.

Agenda is here.

This will be the second meeting of the new Community Council, as elected in March 2025, and we will welcome our new Community Councillors, and any local residents who wish to attend. Thre are quite a few things going on locally so it’s good to catch up!

A Teams link will be set up for councillors and local residents who are unable to attend in person, but we do not have the technical facilities to guarantee a good ‘hybrid’ set up.

Please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk if you wish to receive an online link.

 

Links Place Bus Gate Open to ALL traffic

Duncan Place and Johns Place are currently closed for possibly the next 10 weeks for maintenance work on pavements.

The road network around and through Leith has had increased traffic volumes as traffic that would normally use the closed off roads attempts to find another route to destinations withing the ‘liveable neighbourhood’.

The Community Council asked council officers to consider lifting restrictions on Links Place until the road works have been completed allowing traffic to flow East and West along this road.

Council Officers responded that this was possible and the restrictions which includes the camera have been removed for the duration.

Hopefully we’ll be told before work is completed a date for the camera being switched back on.

 

More changes planned for our area…?

The Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood has now been made permanent  (and has apparently also been ‘renamed’ the “Leith Liveable Neighbourhood”)

But things have not stopped there. At the Council’s Transport and Environment Committee next week (6th March), Councillor Chas Booth is proposing a motion that signposts to further changes in our area. (See below) What do people think of these?

Can / should such steps just be imposed from ‘above’? Is it time for a public meeting, and a focused discussion with local residents, to explore the ideas Councillor Booth is pushing forward?

You can comment below, or email your views to: contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

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Motion by Councillor Booth – Liveable Neighbourhoods

“Committee:

1)         Notes the decision of TRO sub-committee on 18 February to make the Leith Liveable Neighbourhood, introduced under ETRO 23/20, permanent; further notes that while the scheme was generally successful at reducing motor traffic, there was a traffic increase on Duncan Place and northbound on Salamander Place;

2)         Notes that while there is a commitment in the City Mobility Plan (CMP) to roll out liveable neighbourhoods, this work is currently unfunded within the CMP action plan (action 105) but this is being assessed as part of the CMP CIP review agreed by committee in December 2024;

3)         Requests a report to committee in 4 cycles setting out:

           a)         options to address the increase in traffic on Duncan Place and northbound on Salamander Place including, but not limited to, moving the bus gate to Links Gardens and introducing a full modal filter at either the north end of Johns Place or the south end of Duncan Place;

            b)         what further action can be taken to improve dropped kerbs, pavements camber and improve conditions for walkers and wheelers throughout the project area and in particular at Claremont Park/Gladstone Place, including the potential for a new pedestrian crossing near the nursing home;

            c)         what further action can be taken to improve conditions for those cycling in the area, in particular along quiet route 10 between Sandport Bridge and Links Gardens;

            d)         whether there would be advantages to coordinating the timing of any further changes to the Liveable Neighbourhood with rollout of the CPZ to the area south of Leith Links;

            e)         any lessons learned from the Leith Liveable Neighbourhood scheme, in particular on how the council can better engage with disabled people who might be impacted by a scheme at the earliest possible stage.”

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At the same meeting, it is proposed to launch proceedings to ban parking on a number of streets, by introducing new double yellow lines on both sides. Worryingly, according to a recent Evening News article, Claremont Park is included on the list – can this really be the case, given that it is a wide road with plenty room for buses to pass each other, and no record of pavement parking? Seafield Place, Seafield Road and Salamander Street are also listed. Further information urgently needed!

 

See the full meeting agenda here: https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=7245&x=1

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Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood is made permanent

The City of Edinburgh Council’s Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) Sub-Committee today voted to make all of the temporary traffic regulation orders of the Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood permanent. You will be able to watch a recording of the meeting by Thursday, when it should be archived.

The committee acknowledged that they had received a large number of representations from the public and from different groups, and thanked all who had made the effort to contribute. Their decision seemed to be at least partly based on the fact that ‘the majority’ were in favour (although one Councillor did remind them that this was “not a referendum”). They agreed that the current scheme is “not perfect” but felt that no scheme is perfect and that you couldn’t please everybody.

It took the Committee less than an hour to reach this decision. A lot hinged on the issue of increased displaced traffic on the boundary roads, the data on which none of them understood, but were happy to take the word of Council officers and dismiss the experience of people who live here. The Committee Convener said in conclusion that in relation to increased traffic displacement that she was “happy that’s being thingummied”.

This decision means that all the features of the LTN that people are enjoying and valueing will remain, such as quieter and safer roads inside the LTN that encourage active travel, especially for kids, so hopefully that is something that everybody can feel good about.

This Community Council had asked the Committee to make the measures permanent in part only but excluding the bus gate, however this option was rejected.

Making all the current measures permanent means that the current bus gate will remain. It means that in due course – perhaps in a few months –  the Leith Connections team will come back with a proposal to change its location and to move the bus gate to Links Gardens and to make it two way.

Meanwhile, thank you to all who got involved in putting their views forward.

 

 

Community Councils Together

The community council elections are taking place across Edinburgh. The three Leith community councils have a stall at Leith Market, today 15th February. If you want to find out more about what we do, please come along and speak to us. We’re always willing to listen to local residents.

Close off Links Gardens again?

URGENT

The Council’s TRO Sub-Committee meets in one week’s time (18th February) to take important decisions about the Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood (whether to make all the changes permanent or not).

The Community Council has recommended that the bus gate be dropped from the scheme, allowing traffic to flow through from Links Gardens to Queen Charlotte Street, thus relieving pressure on Salamander Place, Duncam Place, Johns Place and on the narrow residential streets (Fox Street, Pattison Street, Elbe Street).

We now see in a newly published Report that has been sent to the Committee (by Council Officers) the recommendation that the bus gate be moved so that it blocks off Links Gardens (not just Links Place) to all traffic except buses. And that it would be made two-way, so that as well as forbidding traffic as at present from east to west, it would also block all traffic coming through from west to east.

The proposed new bus lane/bus gate would remove through traffic from the raised pedestrian/ cycle crossing point on QuietRoute 10 at Links Gardens.

This would be a re-introduction of the situation caused by the Places for People blocking of Links Gardens during the Covid period, which was massively unpopular because it caused huge increases in traffic and congestion all along Claremont Park, Gladstone Place, East Hermitage Place, Hermitage Place, Vanburgh Place and the junction with Lochend Road / Easter Road / Duke Street, and all along Duke Street and Great Junction Street.

This is something that would have a huge effect on the lives of all who live in the Leith Links Area. You can read the proposal in Para 4.70 (and elsewhere) in this Report to Committee (uploaded here, as it seems to ‘come and go’  a bit on the council website, but you can try via https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=645&MId=7581)

Closing Links Gardens couldn’t be decided at the meeting next week, it would require a new consultation, but local people need to be aware that this is a first step.

If you have a view on this proposal, please write immediately to all the members of the TRO sub-committee, whose email addresses can be found here.

And please copy to the three Leith Councillors who have been reported in the press as being ‘united’ on supporting these proposals.

chas.booth@edinburgh.gov.uk
cllr.katrina.faccenda@edinburgh.gov.uk
adam.nols-mcvey@edinburgh.gov.uk

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