Transport chiefs shelled out more than £40,000 to install controversial traffic control measures in a busy Capital neighbourhood despite them being 'overwhelmingly rejected' by locals.
The Get Edinburgh Moving campaign revealed that £40,800 was spent on the Spaces for People scheme in East Craigs upon receiving a response to their Freedom of Information request to City of Edinburgh Council.
It is understood that the costs went towards covering design development, public and stakeholder engagement (materials, sessions and reporting), traffic surveys, analysis and reporting as well as staff time.
However those who have campaigned against the LTN proposals as unwarranted in their East Craigs and Craigmount communities have labelled the council “wasteful” during an economic crisis.
David Hunter, a spokesperson for the group, has said that the community has rejected the proposals from the outset but that the council continued with their own vanity project despite the overwhelming level of rejection for the proposals.
He said: “This revelation is really quite staggering. During an economic crisis, Edinburgh council has spent the best part of £50,000 on an East Craigs LTN scheme that was quite obviously overwhelmingly rejected by local residents. It was obvious from the start, with the 1,000-strong public meeting and 2,700 signature petition, that this scheme was unneeded and unwanted. Yet still the council ploughed ahead with incurring eye watering costs, in effect fighting tooth and nail with the people it is elected to serve.
“We still await confirmation of whether the council’s legal costs are included in this figure, however it is vital that it confirms no more money will be wasted on such counter-productive and divisive actions against its own taxpayers - with residents footing the bill.
“As we’ve said all along, the council needs to ditch the vanity schemes and focus on the basics of road and path maintenance.
"Just days after swathes of Edinburgh were flooded, perhaps City Chambers should instead allocate these precious council tax revenues on properly maintaining our drains and gullies to minimise disruption and costly damage to homes and businesses.”
However it is understood that the funds for the controversial LTN project were provided through a central pot by Sustrans and not through council tax revenues.
A Council spokesperson said: “Spending on the East Craigs Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) has been covered by Transport Scotland funding, via Sustrans.
"This relates to the proposal for an LTN as part of Spaces for People and a subsequent proposal to deliver an LTN after the pandemic, using an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order. The costs covered design development, public and stakeholder engagement (including materials and facilitating sessions), traffic surveys, analysis, preparing reports and staff time.”
