Statement from Leith Links Community Council re the LTN

The role of a Community Council is to keep local residents and businesses informed about matters that will affect them, in the area, and to consult members of the local community for their views, and to represent those views to the Council, and elsewhere, so that the ‘voices’ of local people are heard. That is our job, and that is what we have been trying to do, over the Low Traffic Neighbourhood issues.

Although we had suggested that the bus gate should be excluded from the approval, the Leith Links Community Council is happy that the effects of Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood which benefit many within the area have now been permanently established, for example quieter safer roads that encourage active travel, especially for children. Naturally, we want the best for our area and its residents.

However it was disappointing that members of the TRO sub-committee apparently made no serious effort to understand or analyse the traffic monitoring figures (or lack of figures in many cases, such as no baseline measures to allow true comparison). One Councillor did point out how badly the figures were presented, so as to make them difficult to understand. Overall the committee just accepted unquestioningly what the Leith Connections team told them, and dismissed the experience of the people who live in the area, who consistently report evidence of displaced traffic causing increased congestion on the boundary roads, and correspondingly reduced quality of life for many who live and work just outside the LTN. The Community Council would like to see a better scheme for traffic monitoring in future.