PRINCES Street in Edinburgh is less than a mile long and the wide and gracious carriageway is world-renowned. It used to have three lanes of traffic in each direction. It is bounded on the north by almost exclusively commercial buildings of a considerable height and on the south by massively wide and open space up to the Castle and to the North Bridge.
Our wise forebears of the Scottish Enlightenment must have been prescient to foresee and foreplan so generously for future traffic congestion. They provided a truly magnificent lung to give quick passage through the very fringe of their proposed Georgian New Town, for those future health-endangering pollutants, emitted by both public and private motor vehicles.
One would think it was lunatic to try to restrict traffic flow and prolong the period those dangerous pollutants can be pumped into the atmosphere. How could any reasonable person even contemplate diverting the major inter-city eastbound traffic through the very heart of the Georgian New Town residential areas, devaluing all property and damaging public health alike?
The route is so tortuous and heavily peppered with traffic lights, explanatory notices, and coloured tarmacadam that delays and fumes and noise are inevitable. A tarmac jungle has been created out of serenity. Traffic calming, what crimes are committed in thy soundbite!
Over 700 objections were lodged by New Town residents. These were rejected by the committee appointed to hear them. The Convener of the Transportation Committee, Councillor Begg, did not appear on the morning of this hearing, which I left in disgust. Perhaps he was too busy matching tarmac colours! Councillor Begg was also chairman of Lothian Regional Transport Co and, unsurprisingly, does not represent a New Town electorate.
More serious is that the City of Edinburgh, as the planning authority, is also a property developer, which plans an underground shopping centre expansion below Princes Street! This was coincidental, we are told belatedly. Diverting traffic from Princes Street and devaluing local property are ploys which reek of developer impetus.
If there are 24,000 premature deaths per annum from traffic pollutants, as Councillor Begg claims in his letter (May 7), then is not Edinburgh Transportation Committee hastening death in pursuit of a property deal? There is certainly nothing to write to the papers about. The damage has been done and the central residents are suffering a loss. Not too many of them vote Labour anyway. Sadly votes and money are all that matter to politicians who seem hellbent in making Edinburgh the Blackpool of the North.
R H Soper,
5 North Charlotte Street,
Edinburgh.
May 7.
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