What we did
Design work
Throughout 2020-21, while we implemented what we could as soon as we could, we continued to engage with prominent local groups to develop schemes that would not only create space for social distancing but potentially have wider, longer-term benefits.
In Haddington we worked on a proposal for the junction of Court Street with Knox Place which would have created more space for people to gather while waiting to cross the road at this busy intersection. However, this was later dropped due to concerns around where traffic would be diverted to.
In Prestonpans we sought to create more room for pedestrians and cyclists at the awkward junction of West Loan with Preston Road which is busy with people on their way to the schools and the station as well as being a bus route. Our final designs were only an incremental change, but they would have contributed to a much better experience for pedestrians. We had also incorporated a number of speed cushions which were intended to slow down traffic outside the schools. Unfortunately, we were unable to implement this scheme due to a lack of available contractors, and ultimately lost the Spaces for People funding for this. However, in September we were able to install these under our own programme of works.
Many small-scale schemes were developed for Dunbar in consultation with local groups and, after we had worked them up, we put them online for the community to vote on their priorities. As with the Prestonpans proposals, we were disappointed that none of these were ultimately able to be implemented due to the lack of available contractors within the tight timeframe.
View the priorities for the Dunbar community.
Further schemes such as additional cycle priority measures in Musselburgh and Tranent, and enhanced pedestrian crossings in North Berwick also had to remain on the drawing board for the same reasons.
We worked with City of Edinburgh Council over several months to design a protected Musselburgh to Portobello cycle route. This was not advanced at the time due to concerns raised to Sustrans around the interaction of bikes with bus stops. Sustrans placed a moratorium on all such schemes pending a review of their impacts on vulnerable people. We continue to liaise with City of Edinburgh Council to bring forward an attractive and direct solution for cycling between the two counties.
On-street ebike hire
A large part of our bid were proposals for on-street hire of electric bikes. These would have formed a network of bike hire stations in the west of the county, providing a viable alternative to public transport for commuting into Edinburgh, or indeed, around the county. In common with many individuals and businesses over the past year, we came up against a world-wide shortage of batteries and bicycles, and were unable to award the contract which would have established the scheme. Since we already hosted twenty ebikes on behalf of SEStran in the Musselburgh area, we were able to redistribute some of them to East Lorrimer Place to compliment the new Cockenzie to Prestonpans cycle path. These will be moved to a permanent home at the Journey Hub by Prestonpans station in the summer of 2022. We continue to look into alternative funding streams which may be able to allow us to expand to other areas in the future.
Ebike hire station in Cockenzie
Legacy
Many of the Spaces for People projects have proved to be of long-term benefit and will be preserved. This includes the re-timed pedestrian crossings (less wait time for people wanting to cross the road), cycle parking at coastal and town centre locations, new pedestrian routes in Dunbar, and the new cycle path between Cockenzie and Prestonpans. The town centre planters, and the picnic benches for outside eating, have been handed over to local groups of re-use in their communities. The temporary ebike hire point will be retained for a further two years, but relocated from Cockenzie to Prestonpans station and will be linked with the existing ebike hire points in Musselburgh. A number of measures still require formal Traffic Regulation Orders to be made permanent, including the new speed limits and the closure of the south end of Countess Crescent, Dunbar. This process was initiated in March 2022.