Leith Links Community Council meeting, Monday 27th March, 6:30pm, online (Teams).
The special guest speakers at our meeting tomorrow asked for questions to be sent to them in advance, so we have done that. We are listing those questions here below, so that members of the community can also see them in advance.
Gavin Brown and Gavin Graham of the City of Edinburgh Council have agreed to share information and answer questions about the Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) that are about to be introduced.
Members of the public from Leith and North Leith are welcome to attend Please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent a link for the meeting. (Please do this BEFORE 12.00 on 27th March. Last minute requests are difficult to fulfil.)
YOUR QUESTIONS
CPZ Questions from Leith Links & Leith Harbour & Newhaven Community Council residents
General
How do we know if we need a permit or not? How / where/ when do we apply?
*
When will permits come into action and how much will they be?
*
Can we get permits for visitors and guests?
*
Will parking permits be needed at night time and weekends, or are they only for 8-5 or 9-6 (or whatever) hours?
*
I have carers coming to the house three times a day. Two carers on the morning and evening slot. How are they supposed to park? They already are very low paid and can barely afford to work, so I don’t think they can afford to pay big parking fees (and I can’t afford to pay them for them) and also, they are not paid for their travel time, so if they have to spend ages searching for a parking place it will eat into the time they have to give me the care I need. I am very worried.
*
Why can’t we have parking control only at times that will stop commuters parking all day (like they have at the Grange)? Why does it have to be so all encompassing?
*
With reference to the above subject and the meeting on Monday 27th March I would like to ask why CEC have made it so difficult to clearly determine what the full proposals are? With some information being provided on maps and other information provided elsewhere it’s virtually impossible to obtain an accurate understanding of the full plan.
What levels of revenue CEC expect to raise from the introduction of these new CPZ’s and what will this extra revenue be spent on?
What exactly are the proposals to deal with displaced parking should this become an issue? Merely the introduction of further CPZ’s, or are other potential solutions available?
*
My family often come up from England to visit me, and stay a couple of days. Can I get a Visitor permit for them?
*
I have an AirBNB in the area. How will my guests be able to park?
*
When will the controls be implemented? I see yellow lines going in right now, but I don’t think they are ‘live’? How will people know when they start and how long they can continue to park there without fines, meanwhile?
*
I am a business owner. I am interested to know what we are expected to do about our employees and customers’ parking, since most of Leith parking is for permit holders only. I have a few employees, one of which has to run off to pick up her children from school, she cannot get a bus as timing is unpredictable due to the north bridge closure/consistent changes of leith walk bus stops, and is not on a tram route, and has to park her car. She has expressed an idea that she might have to look for another job due to her not being able to park anywhere. How is it fair that I might lose an employee due to parking restrictions? This is only one of my employees. There must be hundreds of employees in the same situation, let alone customers who will stop coming to Leith to use our businesses. We have already had clients complain that they cannot park. We are not commuters. We are only trying to park our cars and run our businesses. Finally we are getting somewhere with the trams, we’ve survived 16 years of roadworks and mess and now we can’t even park to come to work.
More Specific
Elderly and disabled people who live in a PoLHA block at 133 Constitution Street are ‘marooned’ in their homes as there are no spaces for parking or loading / unloading bays near their door, for taxis and relatives to pick them up and drop off. (Not to mention ambulances etc.) What can be done to help them?
*
The Better Day supermarket on Salamander Place is a lifeline for the many residents who live around this area and don’t want to enter the congested areas of Duke Street/Leith Walk and Commercial Street etc. for shopping. It needs a loading bay outside and a few parking slots for shoppers (maybe restricted to 30 minutes and No Return within X hours.
*
I’d like to know if the CPZ people have liaised with Lothian Buses? There are ongoing discussions about the route of the 34 bus and the location of permanent bus stops (Constitution Street/ Links Place / Links Gardens / Salamander Place), and I am concerned that road markings for the CPZ will not be coordinated with the new plans for the bus stops.
*
Police officers – Given the representations made to the consultation by a number of police officers about the impact on them, is there no way the Council can provide them with permits in conjunction with their employer? A sort of essential worker with ‘anti social working hours’ permit? Many start and finish work at times there is no or very limited public transport and may live quite a way from the Leith station where the Police vehicles are parked. Was this issue even considered?
*
Controlled parking is coming in on Tower Place, against the wishes of the residents (who all have allotted parking spaces with their flats). There will now be no free parking in this area as double yellows all along this section of Ocean Drive due to trams. Where are delivery vans going to park? They have already started parking on the pavements… sometimes blocking dropped kerbs (and we have a few wheelchair users) and there are huge numbers of pedestrians using the road constantly due to the Victoria ship (plus many of them have cars parked in Tower Place). Could we at least have a couple of loading bays?
*
I’d like to know if the council will repaint all lines /add new lines on Tower St. It’s devoid of ANY road markings. Also George Brown & sons park big vans in 2 disabled spaces on Tower St alongside the Malmaison – and this must stop.
*
Parking bays being put in the entrances to the garage businesses on Manderston St and Gordon St, why? We will be fighting just to get parked at our own entrance! Bad enough when the double yellows got put in deterring customers parking up for quotes, advice etc! Some thoughts for local business wouldn’t go amiss.
*
I have a permit for my own home address (Links Gardens), will I also be able to park near my work if I need to at times (Commercial Street)?
I don’t really understand the zones – both North Leith and Leith seem to be numbered N8 – are they covered by the same permit? With a permit for Links Gardens, will I be able to park in the North Leith zone, eg, away along at Newhaven?
*
I had a walk round the block this morning and counted 7 cars in permit holder parking areas. Obviously not in use yet but they all had school parking permit holder badges. St Mary’s school parking area is full so I assume these are teachers cars on the street. A question for Monday. Will these cars be allowed to use the permit parking spaces? Or is their permit just to use the full school car park?
Monitoring
I’d like to know what the arrangements are going to be for monitoring in the adjacent areas and how long the monitoring period will go on for. Will there be a baseline established to monitor against? If that is done during school holidays it will show a significantly lower number of cars parked in Duncan and Wellington Place and Links Place.
Having seen the painting for ‘Permit Holders only’ has just gone in on Links Gardens and assume the double (?) yellows will go in next I would expect to see immediate displacement effects to other areas. In the absence of signage to show the controls do not apply as yet people will avoid risking a parking fine.
Can I therefore ask the CPZ speakers to tell us more about how they will actually monitor displacement from now- not just when the controls actually come in which looks to be likely in six months time? For example are they setting up monitoring points/positions and doing parked vehicle counts at specific times/days of the week? Do they have people living in certain streets to report in to them? How will ‘monitoring’ actually work and when will it start?
*
I live just outside the CPZ, and am anticipating a huge problem of displaced parking in my street and immediately surrounding streets. What ‘monitoring’ will be done exactly? When will it start? How will the level of displaced parking be measured and recorded?
***
This next list, compiled by Councillor Chas Booth, are questions that he has received from community councils and others:
General questions or process questions
1) Where can we see the map tiles of the final version of the restrictions, as they will be installed? Page 3 of the Strategic Review of Parking website shows maps, but it’s not clear if these are the final version, as they will be installed?
2) Where can we see a detailed list of all the comments received during the consultation and the council’s response to each one? In many cases it looks like the council has ignored comments submitted during the consultation, and I’d like to know why? If it’s not possible to see each comment and response, is it possible to see common themes and the council’s response to these?
3) When will the controls come into force?
4) What communication with residents will there be before the controls come into force? Specifically, will I receive a letter giving me sufficient warning to allow me to get a permit?
5) Zones N7 and N8 don’t appear to be listed on the council’s list of residents’ parking permit charges on the council website. Why not? When will they be listed? What will the price of a permit be in zones N7 and N8?
6) Why are you introducing these changes? There is no problem with parking in my area.
7) What consultation was carried out prior to this work starting? Where can I read the consultation reports?
8) Some of the map tiles I have seen do not appear to have been updated with the results of the tram work. What coordination happened between the CPZ team and tram team? For example some sections immediately adjacent to the tram line only have restrictions until 5.30pm, whereas any parking at that location is likely to stop tram operations?
9) Are these changes consistent with the proposed cycle lane along Lindsay Road, Commercial Street, Baltic Street etc as part of Leith Connections phase 3? Will the whole thing need to be ripped up if that project is approved? What coordination happened between the CPZ team and Leith connections team?
10) What are the hours of operation of the new restrictions?
11) If people act as paid or unpaid carers for somebody living in the new zone, how do they go about getting a permit? Is there a charge for carers to get a permit and if so what is it?
12) What does the council intend to do to publicise the details of the new zone to residents and visitors, to ensure everyone is aware when it goes live?
13) If changes are needed to the scheme as installed, for example because parking bays are causing an obstruction, or if unrestricted roads in the area suffer from uncontrolled parking, what is the process and timetable for remedying this? What review processes are in place to ensure these issues are picked up and acted upon?
Queries related to specific streets / locations:
- a) Why is there pay-and-display parking at Salamander Street next to the junction with Salamander Place? This is the narrowest part of the street and likely to lead to problems. It should be double yellows.
- b) There should be a loading bay outside the convenience store on Salamander Place, why is this not included?
- c) What is the council doing to address parking pressure around the Links on match days and other days when events happen? Why are the restrictions not 7-days?
- d) What are the proposals within the new Ropeworks development?
- e) On Mill Lane there is a short section of residents parking shown. This is visitor parking for the former Leith Hospital, and should not be covered by restrictions.
- f) Salamander Street on the south side appears to show parking restrictions, but this is where phase 3 of Leith connections intends to put the cycle lane?
- g) What are the details on Portland Street? Will the end-on-parking be retained or not? If this is to be unrestricted, how will the council respond to parking problems as they arise?
—