Meeting with Cameron Rose, Chairman of the MSCC

Yesterday I met with Cameron Rose who chairs the local Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council. It was a very fruitful meeting, Cameron was very generous with his time and I snagged a pretty good lunch out of it, too :-) David Rintoul (I hope I have the surname right) turned up as well and offered some good advice; I think he is the chairman of the Tollcross Community Council.

It turns out that other areas are suffering in a similar fashion. Zone 7, Sciennes, looks to be getting crowded and Tollcross has become completely clogged up since Zone S1 was introduced. It's good to hear that we're not alone. If anyone knows anything about other areas, can you let me know?

They gave me some pretty good insights into how the local and city councils work. The things that struck me as the most important are:

• City council elections are coming up in March - that may have positive influence on the councilors' listening skills, if we get going in good time
  
• It is best to present complete solutions to the council, rather than to leave them work to do.
  
• The council is very keen to introduce zone S2 early in February; objections from the public would be frustrating to them

It was felt that we need to make three proposals that will alleviate the problem. They ought to be pretty well thought out and researched, as well as having support from the public. We came up with the following:

1. Dual use parking
2. Merging Zones 7, 8 and S1
3. Turn as many streets as possible into end-to-end parking

The first two seemed really good to use. There was a question that merging the zones might make some 'hotspots' where people with more freedom to park take all the sweet spaces. IMO it can't get any worse than it is now, right? Some people have suggested that zone 8 (and I think probably now zone 7) should be allowed to use S1, but there hasn't been much talk of merging before. It sounds a more equitable arrangement to me and I don't want us to appear greedy. Are there issues with merging?

The last point was a bit less attractive. It might be better to choose something else. The thought is that you can get more cars end-to-end than side on. In streets like Marchmont Crescent we could have cars down one side only, but end on. I think (though I'll get a tape measure out and check) that this would allow more cars in the same space. This one seems more complicated both to explain, research and for them to implement.

Can anyone think of down sides to these, modifications or alternatives? Once we're agreed on these I'll finally get round to writing the form letters up.

We talked about speaking at the next council meeting, but I backed out, coward that I am, feeling it would be better to do some more research and get the story completely straight first. What are all the questions we need answering to support our proposals? It is one thing to say to the council, "You messed up," and quite another to say, "Here's what we think you should do and we're sure it really is going to make the situation better." I feel we ought to get facts and figures, but I'm not sure exactly what - any ideas?

Some of the thoughts for the letters that should go to the council were to add the following:

• Objection to S2 until the problems caused by S1 are fixed
• Explain that one is less likely to visit the out-of-town shopping

There was also a suggestion that the AA or the RAC might be able to add some pressure. Are any of you members?

BTW, the next MSCC meeting is at 7:30 on the 8th of November at the St. Catherine's Argyle church on Grange Road. I'm going, would anyone fancy coming along?