PRINCES STREET & WAVERLEY VALLEY STRATEGY PAUSED FOR THOUGHT
The latest version of the Princes St & Waverley Valley Strategy has been put on hold after a motion by the Liberal Democrat Group was supported by most members of the Planning Cmte.
Councillors yesterday thanked officials for their hard work on the document. But they acknowledged consultees’ concerns that it lacked the ambition, imagination and vision needed to ensure Princes St and surrounding areas ‘are vibrant and welcoming places’.
The majority therefore declined to adopt the amendment and instead instructed officers to convene ‘an elected member/officer/stakeholder workshop that brings together those with transport, culture, heritage and placemaking expertise so a more ambitious and exciting strategy can be brought forward for approval’.
You can watch the discussion unfold at Item 7c here.
Negative feedback
Active-travel groups, Richard Murphy Architects and others had earlier criticised inconsistency between transport aspects of the Strategy and the Council’s pre-existing ambitions in the City Mobility Plan and Our Future Streets.
In particular, cycling lobby-group Spokes deplored the amount of roadway prioritising motorised traffic. It said there was too little provision for sitting, walking, wheeling, cycling and public transport. Segregated cycle lanes here are vital for safety reasons, they argued, and need not come at the expense of space for pedestrians. It described the Strategy as ‘unfit for a modern European capital’.
New Town & Broughton Community Council argued persuasively that the Strategy on offer lacked a ‘developed and coherent vision’ for Princes St, one ‘grounded in its purpose in the city’. The Cockburn Assoc criticised a lack of practical detail and a schedule for implementation.
Committee considerations
Planning Officials at yesterday’s Committee meeting described the Strategy as a framework for future work, one which was realistic about current conditions and could deliver improvements in the short and medium term. They noted that 90 per cent of consultees had supported it. Specific projects could in future supplement or adjust its provisions on a case-by-case basis in consultation with other committees.
Planning Convener Cllr Griffiths (Ward 14) said the Strategy was a ‘step in the right direction’. Cllr Mowat (Ward 11) said visionary downplaying of Princes St’s importance as an East–West and North–South transport hub risked creating a ‘choked, constipated and less-connected city’. She favoured refinement over reinvention.
Cllr McNeese-Mechan (Ward 12) said voters would not forgive councillors if half-baked proposals had to be revised in two or three years’ time. It was worth pausing to get things right first.
Liberal Democrat councillors Laing and Osler (Wards 1 and 5) were disappointed that the Strategy as mooted was a mere ‘tidying-up exercise’. But they were excited at the opportunity for the alternative: ‘creative, forward-thinking change’ to transform Princes St (‘lost, uncertain, sad and struggling to find its true purpose’) into a vibrant space for ‘culture, commerce and community’.
Green Councillors Booth and Stanforth (Wards 13 and 14) supported the Lib-Dem call for a sounding board or workshop, something which they had earlier aspired to but thought would be too ambitious to gain support.
The Lib-Dem amendment was eventually accepted 7:4.
Background
A revised and finalised Strategy, whenever it is agreed, will eventually form non-statutory planning guidance as part of the City Plan 2030
Its stated ambitions so far have been to: revitalise Princes St buildings with a mix of retail and leisure uses; improve pavements and public spaces; improve Princes St Gardens and the Ross Bandstand; and shape the future of Waverley Station and the area around it (see Appendix 3).
For those elements which have been priced up to now, the estimated cost is £13.9–14.9m. This would be met by a mixture of cross-service budgeting, grants, the Park Events Levy, the Edinburgh Visitor Levy and transport-led investment.
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