Category: Travel and Mobility

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Trial of 7:7:7 bus lane along London Road corridor, will this affect you?

Please be aware of a new trial starting of a bus lane operating on a 7:7:7 basis (7 days a week, from 7am to 7pm) along the traffic corridor from Leith Street / Leith Walk along London Road towards Portobello. (bus routes include 4, 5, 15, 26, 44, 45, 106, 113, 124, X4, X5 and X7). This may affect your journey  / journey times, or your parking or loading practices.
LLCC has received the following information from the Council:

The Bus Lane Trial between Milton Road East and London Road is scheduled to start on 12 October 2026.
Signage, lining and advanced warning signs will be installed ahead of the project going live.
Detailed below is an overview of the trial with further details available on the project webpages.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the project team.

Case for a Trial

Reasons behind this trial include:

  1. Bus demand on key radial and orbital corridors is growing across Edinburgh and the region,
  2. Travel behaviour has changed since 2019 meaning delays are no longer limited to the traditional peak periods (when existing bus lanes operate), and
  3. Bus journey times are steadily increasing with data analysis showing that that since 2019 bus journey times on the A1 have increased by 22%.

The trial is also a commitment from the City Mobility Plan following improvements to public transport being strongly supported during consultation.

A key part of assessing this trial will be its impact on residents, and business access for customers, deliveries, and collections. This route is a major public transport corridor with parking and loading restrictions already in place, which will now be amended from 12 October 2026.

Monitoring analysis will include bus journey times, traffic surveys, parking and loading surveys, business surveys, along with feedback from residents and other stakeholders.

Assessment of impacts

The trial will be introduced through an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) for a period of 18 months. The ETRO provides an opportunity to monitor the effects of the changes and gather evidence before recommendations are made on the longer-term arrangements.

Access, Parking, & Loading Restrictions

These are quite detailed and can be found listed on the Council website at https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/buses-coaches/bus-lane-trial/4

Blue badge holders

Blue Badge holders will continue to be able to use their Blue Badge in accordance with the Blue Badge scheme. However, they must comply with loading restrictions and cannot park where a loading restriction is in force as detailed on the web site.

Engagement, Communications and Next Steps

Engagement in advance of this trial has included resident and business letter drops, a dedicated business information event and public drop-in sessions.

An Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) has also been completed as part of the development of the trial. The IIA will be reviewed throughout the duration of the trial. The IIA can be viewed on the project webpages.

The first six months of the trial period serve as a consultation period, providing the public and businesses with an opportunity to submit formal comments, objections, or support for the trial at any point during that period. These findings will be reported to Transport and Environment Committee. Please note the ETRO will formally go live on Monday 12 October 2026 at which point opinions can be submitted in writing or via email to:

Traffic Orders
3.3 Waverley Court
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG

Email:TRO.Consultations@edinburgh.gov.uk

 

Controlled Parking Zones in the pipeline…

The Council is currently consulting on proposed parking restrictions all around the Easter Road / Albion Road / St. Clair area. If approved, it means that permits will have to be bought by local residents and businesses, and otherwise parking will have to be paid for, 8:30am-5:30pm Monday-Friday.

Before this scheme is opened for ‘formal’ consultation, feedback is being sought informally from local residents and businesses. I’m assured that the current map and plan is not carved in stone, and that changes to the plans can/will be implemented if local people ask pertinent questions, raise meaningful objections, make sensible suggestions. There is one more drop in session at Norton Park Business Centre, 57 Albion Road, on Thursday 27 August 2026, 2-7pm. Please do go along to find out more and make your views known on the scheme.

There are relatively few residents in the area which is largely occupied by Hibs stadium and Lochend Park, but those that are there are finding it very difficult to park anywhere near their homes due to  – apparently – commuter parking and people from out of the area (possibly from the nearby Leith Walk area and Abbeyhill  colonies area, which now have a CPZ).

I went along to the drop-in session earlier this week and found it very helpful to talk to the Council officers there about how the whole process works (which will be useful to prepare us for later). At this early stage, the proposal is not a ‘done deal’, it is an information seeking exercise. I found the staff ready to discuss wider / future issues such as knock-on effects on nearby areas, and open to hearing views on these, sooner rather than later. (I was also reassured to hear that although some of the original planning designs were done by a London consultant, the current detailed plans are all done in-house by prople who know the area well, and that they are trying hard to reduce the overall use of consultants.)

There are 6 different local schemes in the same pipeline (known as Phase 2), being dealt with in batches of 2 at a time (priority given to those with highest ‘occupancy’ rate (of available parking spaces, as measured by earlier surveys. ‘High’ occupancy means over 70% of available spaces occupied, ‘Low’ is below 40% of spaces occupied. Averaged across the whole area)

  1. Easter Road / Albion area and Bonnington Road area
  2. Willowbrae area and Roseburn area
  3. Lochend area and Restalrig area

They won’t get around to the third batch (our area) until about February 2027, but it will be helpful for us all to be well prepared in advance. I believe they said that even the first areas on the list won’t be implemented until all 6 have been consulted on, which is helpful as it means that the later ones will not have a slow sequential knock-on effect of overflow parking from the earlier ones (they’ll all have a sudden onslaught at the same time!)

It is really important that residents in the Leith Links area all pay attention to this and have a say in the planning at early stages,  so we should pay attention to all of the information and consultation sessions from now on, over the next year.

Leith Links Community Council will be working on behalf of local residents to find out more about peoples views (possibly confusingly mixed…) and potential issues that need bringing to the Council’s attention, so please do get in touch with your thoughts and ideas at any time, via Email: contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

Read more here: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/parking/strategic-parking-review-1/3

Sally Millar, Secretary, LLCC

Please tell us about your travel, since the Princes Street fire….

If you live or work in the Leith Links area, or own/run a business here, please tell us how you have been affected by the fire on Princes Street, and getting around the town since then? For example, getting to work? Do you use bus/car/ bike/walking more, to replace tram? What is bus travel like, for you? Getting to social/leisure activities? Are customers reaching your business? Or anything else you want to tell us about? Please get in touch asap, so we can pass this on to the Council. Email: contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

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Latest news about THAT bus-stop!

From the City of Edinburgh Council, Leith Connections team leader

Dear ward and adjacent Councillors, Convenor and Community Councillors,

Please accept my apologies for the delay to bringing the Kirkgate bus stop on Great Junction Street into use following completion of works on that street at the end of last year. Further work will commence on Monday 29 June meaning the bus stop will be able to be brought into use before the end of July.

A number of you have been in contact with me and Lothian Buses about this stop on behalf of residents. (YES, WE JOLLY WELL HAVE!!!!!!)

Following construction, Lothian Buses raised concerns about the communal bin hub being located on the approach to the bus stop in this location. I was keen to avoid re-work to our installed works and explored various alternatives with Lothian Buses and waste colleagues. We will reposition the hub slightly, locally reducing the width of cycle track. We will also install an additional surface water gully to remedy some minor areas of ponding noted due to the shallow gradient of the street.

The footway will remain open throughout the work but the cycle track will be closed with signage back at relevant junction. The carriageway will be locally narrowed during the works.

The attached leaflet has been distributed to business and residents fronting on this stretch of Great Junction Street.

Apologies again and thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Miles

Miles Wilkinson
miles.wilkinson@edinburgh.gov.uk

Senior Project Manager

Tel: 07563 376595

Active Travel Team, City of Edinburgh Council

G.4 Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG

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.

 

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