City of Edinburgh Council has settled on a final design for Picardy Place. Enabling works are already in progress. Construction will begin next month and is scheduled to finish by the end of this year.
Since the Transport & Environment Committee voted to go ahead with the gyratory in January, various tweaks to the plan have been agreed with community, pedestrian and cyclist groups.
A CEC press release this morning said these alterations include:
CAMPAIGNER PETER WILLIAMSON REFLECTS
On 25 January, the Council’s Transport & Environment Committee approved a revised design for Picardy Place centred upon a three-lane ‘gyratory’ traffic management system.
Proposals for a new gyratory on Picardy Place were approved at a meeting of the Transport & Environment Committee this morning. Councillors voted in favour by 9 votes to 2, with only the Scottish Greens against.
What follows is an impressionistic summary of the main points. For local-government enthusiasts whose Netflix subscriptions have run out, the whole meeting is available to enjoy here for free.
Deputations
New Picardy Place proposals emerged today in a report going before the Transport & Environment Committee on 25 January.
They may be the last.
The changes partly fulfil what the public asked for in the extended consultation process before Christmas, which drew around 1,000 responses from Edinburgh stakeholders and residents.
The 34-page report lists key features of the revision as:
Trevor Davies, formerly Edinburgh Council's Planning Convener (2003–2007) and now Honorary Professor of Urban Studies at Glasgow University, has been rather quiet of late about Picardy Place. Today, he breaks his silence.
Let’s take a step back
It is Edinburgh’s topography, its built heritage and its status as capital city that have attracted the skills and learning and investment which together make our city prosperous and of worldwide renown.
DRAFT 2 – MORE DETAIL
Transport & Environment Committee Convenor Lesley Macinnes has announced that the Council will prolong consultation about redesigning Picardy Place until January 2018.
The extension from an already extended December deadline is to improve debate about how the area may be used and improved.
To join the debate about Picardy Place, writes David Jamieson of ZONE Architects, we offer the attached solution.
It's a proposal which, unlike the Council’s traffic-centric plans, is based on enhancing the sense of place and adding to the cultural quarter generated by the Playhouse, Omni Cinema and St Mary’s Cathedral.
The space for a potential building, no longer marooned in the middle of a roundabout, could be a worthy site for a new 1000-seat concert hall, for example.
LAWRENCE MEETS LOCALS IN LIVELY DISCUSSION
City of Edinburgh Council’s Executive Director of Place Paul Lawrence addressed the New Town & Broughton Community Council yesterday evening, and took questions from members of the public about the controversial Picardy Place proposal (PPP).
He initially covered much of the same ground covered during the Transport & Environment Committee on 5 October.
ONLY LIMITED ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE
Fundamental redesign of the proposed Picardy Place gyratory is not possible if it entails spending more money or time on the project.
So said Paul Lawrence, City of Edinburgh Council’s Executive Director of Place, in answering questions at today’s Transport & Environment Committee.
COUNCIL U-TURNS ON BAD PLANS AND FLAWED PROCESS
With a surprising turn of pace, the Transport & Environment Committee convener Lesley MacInnes has responded to an avalanche of protest at poorly designed and inadequately consulted plans for Picardy Place.
Individuals, lobbyists, ‘stakeholders’, councillors and community councils railed against the proposals and the method of their delivery.