Thread by @rsmcksg

🧵Proposals for further delays to the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation will come to the Transport & Environment Committee on August 15th.

It seems odd to announce it in a small publication behind a pay wall.

https://twitter.com/Sarah_McArthur_/status/1813861980433969443

I wrote about this in May, when the original delay was announced.

At that time, 'funding uncertainty' was blamed, even though the project had been agreed on the basis that it could be done cheaply through traffic orders.

bellacaledonia.org.uk/2024/05/22/bac…

Now we're hearing that concerns about the impact on city centre businesses and public transport journey times are in play, and that more research is needed.

But we just waited years for the research to be completed. The Circulation Plan was agreed in February to great fanfare, with the Transport Convener, Scott Arthur, issuing a rallying call to "think bigger, be bolder and go faster".

democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/s664…

And yet, the opposite is happening. The administration and the officers will come to Committee and make their case for more delay. I'm sure it will convince many and win the day.

But they won't account for the absence of political leadership that I believe is the root cause of the failure to make any meaningful progress on the Council's traffic reduction targets - a failure that makes a mockery of the Council's net zero targets.