Last autumn we reported on the Council’s interesting bid to establish what locals in Edinburgh think of as their ‘natural neighbourhoods’ (Breaking news, 15.10.13).
The draft results of that survey are now available online here, and your comments are invited. (You could even win a map for participating.)
The map below shows that the long-established, wobbling jellyfish of convenience which is Spurtleshire has been cruelly ignored. Instead, the area is (provisionally) Balkanised between six micro-neighbourhoods: New Town; Canonmills, Broughton Road/Powderhall; Pilrig; Bellevue/Broughton; and Gayfield/Broughton Street.
If push comes to shove, Spurtle would argue for the existence of an indivisible Central Broughton stretching from McDonald Road to Dublin Street/Drummond Place/Scotland Street and from Canonmills up to Queen Street; and for a Greater Broughton which pushes out a little further to Pilrig and Dundas Streets.
However, whilst welcoming the Council’s wish to respond better to local nuances, we are suspicious of new-fangled distinctions which drive apparently service user-oriented wedges between neighbours, particularly when these appear to prioritise property prices over more important shared interests. What other reason is there for arguing, as these draft findings do, that London and Albany Streets are any less Broughton-centric than Barony Street?
We may be wrong. Perhaps some locals’ relationships with their estate agents are warmer and more important than we had imagined. What do you think? Tell us your street name and where you think you belong.
You can contact us by email: spurtle@hotmail.co.uk or Twitter: @theSpurtle or Facebook: Broughton Spurtle