Residents in four areas of Edinburgh suffering increasing parking pressure could have pay to leave their vehicles on local streets. The city council plans “engagement” with community councils and residents in Roseburn , Easter Road and Bonnington under plans to be discussed by councillors next week. A “priority parking area” in Lockharton, south of Polwarth, is also proposed after the neighbourhood was inundated with commuters’ cars displaced when charges were introduced nearby.
It involves controlling part of the kerbside space in the area. Transport convener Scott Arthur said: “It’s pretty clear on this occasion the council didn’t get it quite right and it’s made life quite difficult for people in Lockharton who have been struggling to park their cars.” Roseburn topped the council’s priority list for action after its latest survey in March showed “parking pressure” at 93 per cent compared to 90 per cent five years ago, when it was placed second.
Easter Road moved to second place from 15th with its parking pressure figure increasing from 74 to 86 per cent. Bonnington, whose figure increased from 77 to 81 per cent, moved up from 11th to fourth place. However, councillors will be recommended to continue monitoring third placed Willowbrae North, whose figure fell from 85 to 83 per cent.
Mr Arthur said the report, going before the council’s transport and environment committee on Thursday next week, “ranks the areas which are on the conveyor belt for parking management”. “We have to listen to residents right across all these target areas and make sure we have got the balance right,” he said. The report said: “The results of the engagement in Roseburn, Easter Road and Bonnington will be reported to committee, with a recommendation made in terms of next steps.
” Mr Arthur said: “It’s really difficult with the controlled parking zones (CPZs) because although there can be push back against them, by and large once controlled parking comes to an area, in whatever shape or form it is, people want it because they are finding it so difficult to park their car outside their house. “The previous expansion of the CPZ [to Craiglockhart] did result in some displacement parking into the Lockharton area and residents have raised concerns about this. “They are finding it very difficult to park on the street because there’s so many commuters leaving their cars there all day.
People are asking for restrictions to be imposed just to stop people dumping their cars there all day long.” Mr Arthur said charging in Lockharton was unlikely to start until at least next year because “engagement” with residents had yet to be completed and the scheme designed. Alastair Dalton’s newsletter will bring you the best Transport stories and analysis from across Scotland Iain Whyte, the council’s Conservative group leader, described the situation was “chaotic”.
He said: “The council, having imposed parking controls on communities that didn’t want them, is now far too slow to react to the needs of the neighbouring communities that have had the knock-on impact of the migration of parking. “All the council is offering these communities that have been inundated with parking from the most recent zones is a long, slow engagement process that could take years to implement any action.”.
