Edinburgh Council's Transport Convenor has defended the roll-out of temporary active travel routes during the pandemic, saying the controversial scheme has been "used for political purposes".
Emergency powers handed to local authorities amid the first outbreak of Covid-19 allowed the council to create temporary cycle lanes, pedestrianise some of the city's streets and implement traffic restrictions.
Originally known as Spaces for People (SfP) - but since re-branded as Travelling Safely - the measures were introduced using Temporary Traffic Regulations Orders (TTROs) and were designed to create more room for social distancing and to encourage walking and cycling at a time when public transport capacities were limited.
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Whilst many of the bike lanes and widened pavements have now been removed, Edinburgh City Council has been accused of not fully consulting with residents about the changes over the last two years.
During a council election hustings hosted by walking and wheeling charity Living Streets Edinburgh on Tuesday (April 12), candidates were asked what lessons should be learnt from SfP's implementation.
SNP candidate for Liberton/Gilmerton Lesley Macinnes, who has been the council's Transport Convenor since 2017, said the key lesson is to "ensure people understand why those measures were put in place".
She added: "They were put in under emergency powers and the pandemic, in my opinion, is not over and in fact the advice from the Scottish Government is that those schemes stay in place at the moment.
"I've been getting told repeatedly from early on that we're not consulting, we're not consulting. Well the emergency powers that were put in place by both Scottish Government and elsewhere in the UK by the UK Government was to go ahead and get these in as fast as possible and that was to support pedestrian progress for people getting out in the first lock down and also to provide a safe passage to work."
Cllr Macinnes sought to correct the record regarding "a number of misapprehensions" about Spaces for People, including that the council went beyond its powers when measures were rolled-out.
She said: "They've not been done in an illegal way which has been suggested, they've been done using our statutory processes correctly and current Scottish Government advice and it reflects what's happening right across the city.
"When you look at the schemes themselves, they have been tweaked, they have been changed in response to stakeholders like Lothian Buses, we made some changes for fire services, we've made some changes for local communities, we've taken them out of town centres."
She said that claims council officials haven't listened to people's opinions about SfP are "unfounded", adding the scheme has been used "for political purposes" and "an instrument to break down some of the progress we've made around active travel in the city".
However, Conservative candidate for Forth Cllr Jim Campbell argued the "hugely contentious" scheme shouldn't have been rolled out "on the basis of emergency legislation".
"If we're going to do something that's in response to a pandemic, it should be in response to that pandemic and when the pandemic passes it falls. If you're wanting to make significant changes to the way people can use their streets then go through the proper legal process to do that," he added.
Liberal Demorat candidate for Almond Cllr Kevin Lang said: "Having listened to Lesley's answer there, I think the answer is no lessons have been learned.
"If the answer is 'well we should have communicated it better and people should have understand the reasoning behind it more', that's not an appropriate lesson and actually it's that kind of attitude over the last two years that have made this whole scheme so unnecessarily difficult and divisive.
"I think it was perfectly possible there could have been greater engagement with communities around some schemes. Some schemes work well, particularly those around schools, I think they actually do work really well.
"Other ones have been totally unnecessary and frankly a waste of money."
He also highlighted safety concerns around some of the measures, saying: "A lot of the temporary infrastructure has been quite dangerous and the number of people I have met who have tripped over, fallen over, caused injury because of the temporary infrastructure that is in place."
He added: "I actually think there is a genuine lesson to be learned here about how we implement active travel infrastructure."
Inverleith candidate for Labour Mhairi Munro Brian said: "I think it's really important to have proper public consultation on issues such as this. People need the chance to be ale to see specific designs and to be able to have their comments on it and I understand that there was obviously a timing issue with Spaces for People, they needed to roll something out really quickly, but I do think that there are certainly areas for improvement."
Green Party candidate for Forth Kayleigh O'Neill added: "I completely understand the upset and the work that needs to be done to improve the scheme or pull back in certain areas quickly.
"I personally like some of the Spaces for People roads, sometimes paths aren't appropriate and then there's divide between the road and myself.
"But as mentioned this scheme was never meant to be perfect, it was specifically adjusted quickly in response to the pandemic because we needed social distancing I'm aware. Obviously that's not needed any more but I think if we're encouraging more people to walk and cycle you need to give more space to walk and cycle."
All candidates standing in Liberton/Gilmerton at the local elections are:
- Labour and Co-operative Party - Lezley Marion Cameron
- Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life - James Demare Christie
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist - Philip Doggart
- Scottish Socialist Party - Colin Fox
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Lesley Macinnes
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Martha Mattos Coelho
- Labour and Co-operative Party - Ishrat Measom
- Alba Party for independence - Abu Meron
- Scottish Green Party - John Nichol
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Madeleine Rani Frances Planche
All candidates standing in Forth at the local elections are:
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist - Jim Campbell
- Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life - Linda Lenora Campbell
- Labour and Co-operative Party - Cammy Day
- Scottish Liberal Democrats -Sanne Dijkstra-Downie
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Stuart Dobbin
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Carrie Gooch
- Women's Equality Party - Kerry Elizabeth Heathcote
- Scottish Green Party - Kayleigh O'Neill
All candidates standing in Almond at the local elections are:
- Workers Party of Britain - Annemarie Baillie
- Scottish Green Party - Andrew Brough
- Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life - Stewart Geddes
- Scottish Labour Party - Fred Hessler
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist - James Hill
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Kevin Lang
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Norrie Work
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Louise Young
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Lewis James Younie
All candidates standing in Inverleith at the local elections are:
- Scottish Green Party - Jule Bandel
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist - Stuart Herring
- Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life - Phil Holden
- Scottish Libertarian Party - Tam Laird
- Stephen McNamara
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist - Max Mitchell
- Labour and Co-operative Party - Mhairi Munro-Brian
- Scottish National Party (SNP) - Vicky Nicholson
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Hal Osler
- Scottish Liberal Democrats - Malcolm Alexander Wood
