Local resident Caroline Roussot attended the latest George Street stakeholders’ meeting on 17 March.
It’s a quarterly coming together of those interested in the street’s future as the CEC-run 12-month experiment to determine its possible future uses and layout continues.
On each occasion, figures are produced to try and gauge what effect the scheme is having and how a cross-section of the street’s users feel about the result. We attach the latest such presentation unedited at the foot of this page.
In her second article about George Street for the Spurtle (see Breaking news, 2.1.15), Roussot here analyses the data and gives her impressions of the discussion which followed.
Flawed tents, muddled lanes, questionable findings
There seems now to be an acceptance by Mr MacPhail (City Centre Programme Manager for City of Edinburgh Council) and by stakeholders (hopefully including Essential Edinburgh, EE) that the two major things being trialled on George Street (‘tents’ and cycle lanes) would not be acceptable long term in their current forms.
Tents/decking
The tents and decking are ugly, shoddy, tacky, intrusive, and neither permanent nor truly temporary. They are a private use of a public space and (arguably the main consideration for decisionmakers) simply do not drive footfall onto George Street. For 90 per cent of the time they’re used simply to store furniture and are completely empty of customers for around half of the remaining 10 per cent.
Also worth noting:
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1. CEC claims that the trial has already shown 'clear-to-overwhelming support for outdoor space / animation / cafe culture' in spring, summer and autumn. What data does CEC have for spring and summer, I wonder?
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2. The sort of events we can look forward to in future years, should proposals to 'animate' George Street’s winter season go ahead, include an outdoor 'Valentine’s proposal cushion'.
Cycle lanes
Even amongst those who would like specific cycling provision in George Street, there seems little support for the current configuration of two-way cycle lanes crossing over halfway along.
MacPhail mentioned that he would have liked to trial better cycle lane layouts, but that there was now insufficient time to get amended traffic orders sorted out before the end of the experiment in September.
If this is so, and nothing that has been tested so far is any good, how will it be possible in September to do anything other than return permanently to the pre-experiment layout and state of affairs?
I think it is completely wrong to give us a year-long trial of apples, and then try to use that as a basis for concluding that what we actually need is pears!
Footfall
In addition, what seemed to come out of the meeting was that there was very much less to boast about in terms of footfall than had initially been thought after the first quarter’s results.
Footfall at St Andrew Square and the east end of George Street has been measured by EE as higher than during the same period last year (doubtless due to all the animations within St Andrew Square itself). Nevertheless, in the central section of George Street footfall seems on a definite downward curve (source: Essential Trends).
Public opinion
The results of the survey of members of the public were noticeably less positive than at the first meeting three months ago.
There was a drop of over 40 percentage points in the proportion of people saying the overall appearance of the street was 'very good', for example.
Respondents were much more likely to say that they 'don't know' whether anything has been achieved by the changes in terms of encouraging lingering, encouraging active travel and so on, than in the first quarter.
Another interesting point was that people who don't live in Edinburgh were very much more positive about the changes than those who do.
It seems that the closer you live to George Street, the less you like Essential Edinburgh's ideas for it! Ironically, while non-Edinburgh residents generally liked the changes, they were particularly numerous in noting that they would be no more likely to visit George Street as a result! Not much of a mandate for Essential Edinburgh, is it?
No time for complacency
Those of us who would like to see George Street returned to use as a street will be cautiously pleased at the news that the tents will go (though disappointed that EE has refused to remove them before the end of the trial, a possibility which was wafted enticingly three months ago). It’s also good that the asymmetric layout will disappear.
However, it’s still far too soon to rejoice. Our Council thinks that the principle that has been established in the current trial is one of ‘civic use of civic space in an unhindered manner upon request by the Council’. What that boils down to is they think it’s acceptable for businesses to pay to take over the pavement and roadway, as long as they dismantle it when the Council wants access to put on events of its own!
A taxi driver at the meeting made an excellent point, very eloquently. To paraphrase him, I hope accurately, there is now no legal direct route between Lothian Road and Queensferry Road, it having been blocked off by the construction of an enormous piece of pavement.
CEC is now looking for suggestions for how to 'use' this new 'public space' (around the Rutland Hotel) and is proposing putting sculptures there.
This manner of creating a ‘space’ by destroying its previous purpose as a thoroughfare, then casting around desperately to find something to do with it, seems to me to approach the issue of civic space the wrong way round.
However, if I understand CEC and EE’s aspirations right, even in advance of the experiment and surveys being completed, the same fate now awaits George Street.
Got a view? Tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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@theSpurtle @NewTownFlaneur that's because you're never quite sure that your table isn't about to be taken out by a passing vehicle...
@theSpurtle @edinspotlight errr not when that East wind is a blowin!
Euan MacGuzzi McGlynn Get rid of them those restaurants already have premises, why clutter our roads.
John Cromb Those tents and decking are ugly- cheap & unsightly.
John Cromb This obviously hasn't worked principally I suspect due the poor and cheap execution which looked more like a B&Q garden centre than a European style piazza. Perhaps if they had spent real money on it, with lovely glass pavilions or some such structures it could've been lovely. The cooncils skint and this was a half arsed attempt which had no ones backing. How much has this "experiment" cost?
Bill Dunlop Excellent piece with which I thoroughly agree. The problem is CoE Council need the money, but sadly have little idea how to generate same without disrupting public spaces.
Rhona Stewart Cameron Walking across the zebra crossing in George Street last week and a cyclist almost knocked me down. He did apologise but i was in the middle of the crossing and if he had been a bit slower he would have seen me. Perhaps it was all the street furniture on the road which confused him. Bring back George Street without all this rubbish. Time the Council was spending money on the pavements and roads.
@theSpurtle Why not move outdoor eating to city chambers quad? If businesses are expected 2 go sans car why not test it on councillors first
New Town Flâneur @NewTownFlaneur
@theSpurtle For George Street, a whoopee cushion somehow feels more appropriate than a Valentine’s proposal cushion.
Neale Gilhooley As a pedestrian, cyclist and driver I am thoroughly fed up with constant change for the sake of it. After the Tram build saga I thought it would be over, but no. So how do I drive into or near Waverley, how do I get up to the Old Town without a wrong turn and a spurious diversion? How do I cycle along George Street without apparently going against the foot traffic flow? It's a nightmare trying to get around the centre of the city which I've always lived in and a lot of that is down to the Council, especially this George Street mess; al fresco cafe culture is so attractive to our City Fathers but it does not work. Here we are on the 24th of March and it wont get above +7 degrees C today. As for the conservatories, for most of the year these are transparent outdoor fridges! And now that want us to crawl along at 20 mph 24/7 - don't get me started!
