Consultants Oscar Faber, appointed by the Scottish Office, and Edinburgh Council, have proposed a major pedestrian/cycle route, The Parliament Way, from Waverley Station to the Holyrood Parliament. The Way would be 6m wide and covered from Waverley to Tolbooth Wynd, where it would join the Canongate.
Other recommendations to minimise car access to the Parliament include an extension of the CERT busway, and the Parliament City Hopper, a bus link to Waverley, Haymarket, and the Exchange near Lothian Road.
Access to the Parliament is highly symbolic for future planning and transport policies, and it is disappointing that a car space will be provided for each MSP (though spaces are reduced 25% from the original plans). There is little doubt that the many letters to the Scottish Office and newspapers on this helped ministers see the great public concern over sustainable access. So congratulate yourself if you wrote - the Oscar Faber report is one result!
In future, Waverley redevelopment could link The Parliament Way to Princes Street [Spokes 71]. The Way could also provide the long-awaited link, shown in Edinburgh Central Local Plan, from the existing east Edinburgh Innocent cycleroute to Waverley (and in future Princes St).
But the Way is just a recommendation, with two big question marks. First, Edinburgh Council does not have the £½m to build it. It should be part of the Parliament project, with government funds. Second, it goes through former New St Bus Garage, where a 760-space car park and other developments are already proposed [planning application 0485]. Fortunately Spokes had already objected to this application, which also totally neglects cycle access and parking [spokesworker 22.2.99]. Building the Parliament Way through the site would help meet these objections.
We urge readers to support the Parliament Way. Ask the government to fund it as part of the overall Parliament project, and to ensure that New Street plans are only approved if modified to include it. Write now to: Donald Dewar MP, Scottish Secretary, Victoria Quay EH6 6QQ. Copy your letter to: Cllr Bob Cairns, Planning Convener, Edinburgh Council, High St, EH1, with a note asking if he will support you. Also raise the issue with your local Scottish Parliament candidates.
"Moderate physical activity in the form of everyday activities such as walking and cycling makes a vital contribution to positive health and active ageing", according to the new Public Health White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland [ISBN 0.10.142692.5, £6 from the Stationery Office]. It then calls on all relevant departments/agencies to co-operate, and promises a Task Force, with new resources, to set up a National Physical Activity Strategy for Scotland.
The White Paper also sets an astonishingly ambitious target, to increase the proportion of adults taking 30+ minutes of moderate activity at least 5 times weekly from 1995 figures of 32% of men and 22% of women to 50%/40% by 2005 and 60%/50% by 2010.
Just think of the lifestyle changes to achieve this target! We cannot see how it can be done without huge increases in walking and cycling for everyday purposes.
These commitments mark a big Spokes achievement. The White Paper is the outcome of a 1998 'Green Paper' consultation. The Green Paper's section on how to increase physical activity had 5½ paragraphs on sport, with walking/cycling for everyday journeys appearing only at the end of the 6th and final paragraph!
Spokes, and many individual members, wrote about this lack of understanding. Spokes also asked all Scottish Directors of Public Health, of Transport, and Health Councils, to make similar points in their own response. We had great support including Lothian and Glasgow Pub-lic Health directors Dr Helen Zeally and Dr Harry Burns.
Spokes has now congratulated Health Minister Sam Galbraith and his officials on taking the consultation feedback seriously, and putting everyday walking/cycling on an equal footing with sport (though we see it as even more important), and setting the remarkable target above.
Please write to your new MSP,
asking them to pass on congratulations to Health Minister Sam Galbraith,
on setting such an ambitious target, and asking what steps are planned
to achieve the 2005 figure, just over 5 years away. One urgent step
must surely be new funds for walking/ cycling schemes, perhaps as an expansion
of the new Scottish Office Public Transport Fund [Spokes
71].
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