City of Edinburgh Council's Finance and Resources Committee will next week consider approving a £5.5m Leith Improvement Programme (LIP) for north Edinburgh streets.
On Tuesday 31 July, councillors will examine LIP's scheme of:
- utilities work
- road resurfacing (Bernard Street junction to Picardy Place)
- environmental improvements (including tree planting, soft landscaping and repair of pavements)
- reinstatement of the landscaped London Road roundabout, and of pedestrian refuge islands and traffic islands
- and artwork reinstallation (pigeons sharing pavement space at Elm Row with the London Road clock, Holmes back home).
The full report is available in the pdf at the foot of this page.
Money for the work has come from the Tram project budget (£2.3m) and £3.2m worth of efficiencies made to the Council's Capital programme. It follows two rounds of public consultations this year, which met with a mixture of optimism and suspicion from local people (see Issue 209, out in August).
'We will continue to meet with members of the local community to make sure that our plans meet with their expectations,' promised Councillor Lesley Hinds (Transport Convener), 'and we will work with them to reduce disruption as far as possible.'
It is to be hoped that approval on Tuesday will begin bringing to a close the process of remediation first flagged here in autumn 2011 (Breaking news, 27.10.11). However, readers have memories of half-cocked plans and underinvestment going back years, and £5.5m will certainly not match locals' aspirations for the area.
Hmm. As far as possible. We shall see.