Concerns from S1

I think there may be some worries in S1 that their new found parking freedom is about to be invaded by hordes of several million 'Zone 8ers'. I received this email from Lapis Lazuli.

The problems in S1 before were caused by commuters, I think, not neighbouring residents. Moreover, our numbers show that the impact on S1, if pay and display is turned over to dual use as well, will be unnoticeable.

However, even though our cause won't hurt S1 in any way, we ought to try and address these concerns. Does anyone have any ideas about what we might do?

I must also say that, despite what Lapis implies, I've only delete spam comments from the blog and that I don't think any one in Zone 8 would threaten Lapis.

---

Here's the email:

I understand that there is a campaign running to allow residents of N Marchmont to be allowed to park in zone S1. Do not believe there is any unanimity on this across marchmont. This is opposed by all those I have canvassed on this in the marchmont portion of zone S1.
We have suffered from free-loading zone 8ers for 20 years or more.

See also my comments and those of an anonymous but like minded person at http://marchmontparking.blogspot.com/ (if they haven’t been censored again).

Given the strong feelings aroused among those in N marchmont I am obliged to remain anonymous (as is my right in law under section 8 of the Human Rights Act).
I simply wished you to have support to protect S1 from
Z8 cars flooding in again.

lapis

---

And I have this one from a resident of S1.

Hugh,

Congratulations on your web site, which is providing a constructive forum for airing views and facts about parking. I am writing to you to express a contrary view to those of your local residents in Marchmont, not to be argumentative, but simply to present an alternative view, so that you can see how others view the situation from outside Marchmont.

I would oppose any proposal to merge zones 8 and S1. I want zones to be as small as it is practical to set up and enforce. Let me explain why I believe those of us in the Grange and those in Marchmont will always have opposing views on this and why it will be very difficult for the politicians and Council officials to adjudicate on the matter.

Your own website (blog) is very helpful in providing statistics that enable us to support our prejudices with real facts. I see from the analysis of Zone 8 spaces vs permits that there are 1225 residents’ permits in zone 8, while there are only 755 residents’ spaces. There are only 322 pay and display spaces, so even if all of these were converted to shared use, there would still be insufficient spaces for residents to park all their cars in zone 8.

That is the nub of the problem. Residents of zone 8 have more cars than there is space in which to park them. They will therefore want the zone to be as large as possible to allow them to spill over into an area where demand for on-street parking is less than supply. Those living in that outer area (e.g. S1), however, if demand for on-street parking from residents is less than the available space, will take a diametrically opposing view, wanting any controlled parking zone to be as small as possible. In that way, those residents are more likely to have a space outside their property available for their own parking or empty to improve the appearance and cleanliness of the street. In the extreme, their ideal parking zone would be the exclusive parking rights in the length of road in front of their own property.

I am fortunate in living in a house in the Grange with a garage for my cars. When I moved here, I considered my needs for my family and my furniture and I looked for a property that met my needs. I have two children and two cars. My requirements were therefore for a house with enough bedrooms for my family and enough off-street parking for my cars. If I had purchased a house that was too small for my family or my furniture, I would not expect my neighbours to provide lodging for my children, nor to store my surplus furniture in their houses or gardens. I certainly would not expect to leave my surplus furniture outside their houses. I take a similar view with cars. If I could not afford a property in South Edinburgh with off-street parking, I would have to choose between the amenity of living in South Edinburgh (and forsaking one or both of my cars) or living somewhere less pleasant where I could park both my cars off-road. I do not assume that it is a right of a resident to be provided with on-street parking.

I know that the world looks very different to residents of Marchmont. I see from your blog that a major concern of Marchmont residents is about the refuse bins taking up parking space. Residents of Marchmont understandably see the roads as a parking resource in which the objective is to maximise the number of cars that can be parked there.

Residents of the Grange (at least some of them) take the opposite view. The ideal state of the roads is to have no parked cars in them at all. When I first moved to the Grange, there were rarely any cars parked outside my house at night or at weekends. My children played in the street. They learned to cycle in the road and I felt comfortable letting them cycle round the block as the roads are wide enough to accommodate wobbly cyclists and careful drivers. More recently, however, the roads became more solidly parked. The gutters were not getting swept when the road sweeping lorry came round. The buses could not stop by the kerb in Lauder Road because cars parked at the bus stops. And my children’s cycle to school was now past a continuous line of parked cars.

With the advent of Zone S1, things have improved markedly in that area. The roads look much better, feel safer and generally make the Grange a more pleasant place to be and to walk through. Contributors to your blog start from the presumption that empty spaces in streets are a waste and that they should be used for parking. I take the opposite view. Empty spaces are good and improve the amenity of the streets I live in and walk through. You may have noticed that the Grange Association (our local residents’ group) has lobbied the Council about the visual impact of the new signs, posts and road markings of Zone S1. We jealously guard the Grange’s Conservation Area status. You can imagine that if we are troubled by the visual impact of some posts and ticket machines, we are much more troubled by the impact of having parked cars and vans. Their impact is much greater and does markedly change the look and feel of the area.

I know that my views may irritate people in Marchmont, who may feel that the residents of the Grange are very fortunate in being able to afford the luxury of houses with off-street parking, and that the Grange should provide some relief for the overspill of cars from Marchmont. However, I believe that the residents of Marchmont (Zone 8 specifically) must be responsible for finding the solution to their own problem.

The problem is too many cars for the spaces available in Zone 8. How you choose to solve that problem is up to you. You could restrict the number of residents’ permits to the number of spaces available and then auction them, or raffle them, or have a lottery. You could club together to rent some garages or off-street parking outside the area. You can lobby the Council to increase the amount of parking available on-street (e.g. end-on parking). But the solution must be contained within Zone 8. It is not reasonable to expect those outside zone 8, who have made provision for the storage of their vehicles, to cross-subsidise Zone 8 by providing parking on the streets of the Grange or other parts of S1. We like our empty streets.

Your blog is revealing in showing how the world looks completely different to you in Marchmont than it does to me in the Grange. There are comments such as:

“We want the council to know that they need to stop fixing problems by creating problems in other places.”

implying that it is the Council that is creating the problem of there being too many cars in Zone 8.

Another comment:

“Mary has lived there for many, many years and has never had a permit in all that time. She used to park just round the corner in the free parking in S1 and never had any trouble finding a space not too far away.”

shows that there are still more cars of residents of Zone 8 not in your statistics. I therefore doubt the statement:

“The problems in S1 before were caused by commuters, I think, not neighbouring residents. Moreover, our numbers show that the impact on S1, if pay and display is turned over to dual use as well, will be unnoticeable.”

Your numbers show that there are at least 470 cars (plus those like Mary who are not in your numbers) that would park in S1, this being the excess number of Zone 8 permits issued comared with spaces available. I don’t think that is ‘unnoticeable’.

I do understand that this is not a problem that can be solved overnight, and glib statements from people like me that “you have too many cars” do not sound helpful. However, there is the longer term question of whether Zone 8 residents really do need that many cars. I notice that your excellent statistics on the number of spaces in each street were collected by driving round the streets. I found that very revealing. It would never occur to me to drive to Marchmont. It’s only round the corner and I can walk it in five minutes. Maybe that’s because I would have to get my car out of the garage and you can just hop into your car parked on the street. But it does make me wonder if you are a bit too wedded to your cars.

I trust that you will take my comments here as helpful in setting out an opposing view, so that you can see how the debate lies. I do understand that you have a real problem and that you need to solve it and I am just an outsider in your deliberations.

I would be very happy if you want to post some or all of this e-mail on your blog, but please do not publish my name, phone number or e-mail address. Just call me ‘a resident of the Grange’.

I am copying this e-mail to Marilyne MacLaren and Jim Grieve.


Yours sincerely,

Phone calls and visits and emails

I have been getting lots of phone calls and visits over the past few days (as well as lots of very encouraging emails and handwritten letters). Thank you everyone for your support!

One very sad tale came tonight from Mary who is retired living in the east end of Zone 8 (I forgot to ask if I could blog about her, so her name has been changed and there's no address). Mary has lived there for many, many years and has never had a permit in all that time. She used to park just round the corner in the free parking in S1 and never had any trouble finding a space not too far away.

That was until the introduction of S1. Now she's bought a permit for zone 8, and expected she'd be able to park nearby. Not so! She is forced to park out the other side of S1 as far away as Oswald Road! From there she has to walk back to her flat.

I do hope the council will help us with this. As I get more and more stories like this it becomes quite upsetting.

New permits applied for

I have been a bit slack over the last few days - work pressure has been getting the better of me. I received some information from Marilyne a while ago and haven't blogged it - I am bad, I know.

Below is a letter from Jim Grieve to Marilyne that she has forwarded to me from the 17th of November.


Dear Marilyne,
You asked me for some further information regarding the above. I am advised that, since 4 September, a further 113 permits have been issue in Zone 7 and 148 in zone 8. We are in the process of organising surveys in these areas, the results of which we will use as a basis for any changes to the distribution of residents' permits. I am pursuing the other issues you raised the other day - ie the positioning of a ticket machine in Greenhill Place and the poles issue in Thirlestane Road and will respond as soon as I can.
Kind Regards
Jim

Hugh, the complete idiot, strikes again (Council meeting next week! Not this week)

Umm, oops. I have been stressing about all the things I haven't done for the meeting with the council. Ahem, Ursula has just pointed out that the meeting is not this Wednesday; it's on the 29^th!

I'm very sorry about getting this wrong :-(

Survey of Parking in Marchmont

Assunta and I drove around every street in Marchmont at about 1pm this afternoon. We recorded how many residents spaces there were free and how many pay and displays. Actually, we missed a few, so I'll redo those tomorrow.

Then, Janne and I did the same thing from 9pm to 11pm. This time we covered every street very carefully. The table below shows you where the spaces are. You may notice that there were NO permit spaces in Zone 8 Marchmont! I am now parked on a yellow line and I am looking forward to an early rise to move the car.

S1 has so many spaces that they are difficult to count! Long stretches with room for many, many cars are difficult to estimate so the error for S1 is probably quite high. Zone 8 is easy because there aren't really any spaces at all, so the figures are pretty accurate (particularly for residents' spaces).

BTW, Cameron and Monica have done the same thing for Sciennes.
I'll put the afternoon figures for Marchmont out once I've finished them off.

20th November 2006 - 9pm-11pm
Zone 8 (Marchmont Only)
Street	Residents	Pay&Display
Meadow Place	0	0
Marchmont Crescent	0	2
Roseneath Place	0	0
Roseneath Terrace	0	0
Argyle Place	0	2
Argyle Park Terrace	0	0
Warrender Park Road	0	4
Warrender Park Terrace	0	7
Whitehouse Loan	0	6
Marchmont Road	0	0
Marchmont Street	0	2
Spottiswoode Street	0	2
Total	0	25
Zone S1 (Marchmont Only)
Marchmont Crescent	5	2
Spottiswoode Road	34	14
Lauderdale Street	46	29
Arden Street	34	6
Thirleston Road	47	25
Strathern Road	6	9
Whitehouse Loan	33*	6
Marchmont Road	2	2
Spottiswoode Street	35	12
Total	242	105

*Whitehouse Loan is being converted as we speak, so this is difficult

Where is there room for more parking spaces

I've received a couple of letters suggesting that there a few places with single yellow lines that don't seem to have a good reason not to be parking spaces. Shoot me an email or drop a comment on the blog if you've noticed anywhere like that.

Thank you for all the help

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been working so hard on this! We've delivered a vast number of letters so far.

So far we've delivered to:
    Warrender Park Crescent
    Warrender Park Terrace
    Marchmont Street
    Meadow Place
    Marchmont Crescent
    Roseneath Place
    Argyle Park Terrace
    Argyle Place
    Roseneath Terrace
    A bit of Warrender Park Road
Leaving (in the bit we planned on, up to the links):
    Rest of Warrender Park Road
    Marchmont Road
    Spottiswoode Street
    Whitehouse Load
    Zone 7
And, flyers have been done up to the links as well!

That really is a huge amount of folding, labelling and delivering. So thank you very much to Janne, Mailin, Sarah, Paula, Richard, Assunta, Fraser, Mel and Bruce! A fabulous job.

New Zones all in one go

Julie has pointed out that there was an article in the Herald and Post yesterday (page 7) about the new Zones coming in. The council are going to introduce them all at once so they don't have the same gridlock that S1 caused.

A contrary position

I have received an email going against the trend. I've received so many emails of support that this one rather took me by surprise. I thought it my duty to publish it and Sarah has agreed to that.

Dear Whoever you are who left a note on my car,

If you're logging the number of individuals like yourself who thinks that there should be a straight correlation between number of cars on the street and number of parking permits sold, please note that I am emphatically against your shortsighted cause.

Edinburgh is awash with cars and something needs to be done to reduce the pollution, danger and general gridlock. I dont find it remarkable at all that there are more permits than cars and we all take our chances with what's available. That's fine by me.

If you were to analyse what you see out the window of your Marchmont tenement, perhaps looking beyond your parked car, you would see the distinctive nineteenth century architecture of the street. The area is just not designed for this volume of cars. Nobody had them in 1880. You're griping about trying to fit something into an environment for which it wasnt designed. I'd go wider than Marchmont with this observation: the city is not big enough for all the cars that people want to drive and neither even is the country.

I would be perfectly happy if the car permit doubled in cost and the number of spaces halved. If you dont like the fact that you cant always park your car on the street (which is a privilege not a right in my view), my advice to you is to get a bike, join the car club, or take the bus.

I know that Marilyne MacLaren is interested in this issue. I think our elected representatives are there not just to court the numpty vote, but also to fix a strategic eye on what might be for the general good of our neighbourhood, of our city and our country. I therefore hope that she and you will take into consideration the fact that there is some proportion of your neighbours, me being one, which does not support your action.

yours sincerely,
Sarah Price

A letter from Marilyne

Dear Hugh

Well done on the Evening News article, I thought it read well.

I have discussed the issue with Brian Grieve in the City Development Dept and he has gone away to look at whether there are any legal impediments to allowing Zone 8 residents to park in Zone 1. As I said to you at the M/S Community Council, the officers are reluctant to change the boundaries of Zones straight away, until things have settled down, in areas such as the Grange and Greenhill, and the Thirlestane Road setts are re-laid. I can see the logic in their position!

I have from Mr Grieve three dates for a meeting with residents, either 28th or 30th of November during the day, or Wednesday 29th November, early evening. I also can make any of these dates at present. Could you please get back to me with the date and time you prefer, quite quickly if you don't mind, as diaries fill up.

May I suggest that we have a spread of residents from different streets?

Kind regards

Marilyne MacLaren

Councillor Marilyne MacLaren
Tel: 0131 529 3174
Fax: 0231 529 7494

Research Group

There is a little research group, formed during the last MSCC meeting, to find out facts and figures about the parking situation and to propose a well thought out solution that suits everyone. I've blogged a bit about the group before, here.

We met today, for the first time, at Cameron's house. Cameron's taken a bunch of tasks on himself, stuff to find out from the council about zones 7 and S1. We're also going to survey every street in Marchmont and Sciennes at different times of day to find out how many empty spots there are or not.

Cameron had laid on lunch for us which was fantastic and just what I needed. Cheers Cameron!

We're going to be meeting again on Monday.

I've said before that I'm not very observant. Dorothy asked us what we thought about the tram system coming in soon. My only reply was "There's a tram system?" Oh, what a pillock. Well, this evening I asked Janne, my wife, thinking I couldn't be the only one who nothing about anything not placed directly in front of him in large flashing letters. I got looked at, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I don't care, she's told me silly rumour there's castle in this city of ours - preposterous!

Evening News - I love them

There was a huge article in the Evening News about us, called "City taking us for parking ride"! It has interviews with Paula and Marilyne and really does a fine job of laying out our case.

It also a huge picture of me leaning on someone else's car trying to look thoughtfully and gravely into the distance - coming off looking a bit confused :-) My mother will take one look at it and say "Good heavens, Hugh, didn't I teach you how to tuck your shirt in?" BTW, if it's your car I'm leaning on, sorry.

Photos of a slightly bedraggled hippie

The photographer from the Evening News has just left. He took hundreds of photos up and down the Crescent and by my car which I had to park on Warrender Park Terrace last night since I foolishly came back at 6:30. A pretty miserable day for it, I felt quite sorry for the poor guy.

Hopefully then there'll be an article in the Evening News (I got confused by the email address, I think) tomorrow or the day after. I have my fingers crossed that it won’t have morphed into ‘Missing Link Finally Found in Marchmont’.

Hey, this means our letters of protest to them must have worked! Fabulous work Paula and Sarah (did I miss anyone)!

Alan Roden from The Scotsman

Word seems to be spreading! I just picked up the phone and found Alan Roden, the transport correspondent from The Scotsman, on the other end. He wants to write a story about our problem and asked for the details from me. He'd even read the blog!

I have to say the thing foremost in my mind was "Don't screw this up! Don't screw this up!" I'm not very good at unprepared public speaking (as those of you subjected to my waffle at the MSCC meeting can attest) and so I do just hope I got all the right points across.

Alan said that he would try to get the story in tomorrow or the day after. Isn't this good news?

Also, there may be a photographer coming round today. I may have to spend the next few hours brushing up or one quick photo of me will put everyone off our campaign. Would any of you be ready at short notice to drop in for a photo? I thought that a photo of lots of us would look better than one shabby hippie!

A reply from Murray Black (Bins)

Sarah has received a reply from the council about the bins. I've copied it out below.

Personally, I had no idea about the bins until they were suddenly moved. How many of you knew or did not know where they were going?

I also don't think it really matters whether or not we were aware at the time or whether or not we attend the German Church. What matters is that it is our street and we don't like where they've put the bins now. We want them moved now and so far we haven't heard a good reason (except a hint at some bureaucratic inertia) why they can't simply be put in the right place.

_________

Dear Ms Sandow,

SITING OF WASTE CONTAINERS - MARCHMONT CRESCENT

I refer to your recent enquiry with regard to the above.

The locations along Marchmont Crescent were chosen to minimise walking distances and ensure public safety, as residents are not required to cross the public thoroughfare to deposit their domestic waste. Efforts were made to reduce the impact on residents' car parking and adjustments to the parking bays were carried out accordingly.

I assure you that the new locations were advertised and all statutory procedures were followed.

All of the waste container bays, that were marked on the carriageways within Marchmont, were on display at the public exhibitions held at the German Speaking Church on Chalmers Crescent on 7 and 8 May 2003.

The Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) procedure began on 1 September 2003 and the standard procedures regarding public notification were carried out. On 28 May 2004, statutory bodies were notified; a legal notice was advertised in the Scotsman; and Street Bills were in place along Marchmont Crescent and remained up until 18 June 2004.

Our Highways and Waste Management Officers satisfactorily addressed any objections to the Traffic Regulation Order that were received and subsequently the TRO/03/44 came into effect on 20 April 2004.

Unfortunately, statutory obligations will not allow the Department to accommodate your request to relocate the waste containers. Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Jonathon James on 469 5479.

Yours sincerely,

Murray Black
Senior Waste Management Officer

_________

What are the statutory obligations?

I have spoken with Jonathon James already. There's a report on that meeting in the blog, here.

(Re)Labelling Letters, Cutting Up Flyers and Deliveries

At the MSCC meeting Marilyne MacLaren suggested that letters not be sent to the council directly, but rather kept for her to take to them. Apparently, letters have a tendency to be 'lost' once they enter that bureaucratic quagmire. She suggested that the best plan is to collect them all so they can be presented en masse, in their most powerful and weighty form.

Certainly a good plan and certainly the right thing to do. But, ughh, I have visions of these letters never getting outside of my dining room! So far they've been printed, binned, reprinted, scrapped and printed all over again as I make mistake after mistake with them (and I'm not even going to think about all the trees that are being sacrificed in the name of adequate parking!). After all that hard work that Paula, Mel and Janne put in folding and labelling what felt like a mountain of letters, it has to be redone!

I have printed off a few hundred new labels which need to replace the old ones. I've also got a few hundred fliers printed that Mailin designed that need to be cut up and stuck on people's windscreens. And, of course, the letters need to be delivered.

So, if you're up for any of those tasks, please, either drop round. Oh, and if you do come round to mine, the doorbell doesn't work, so you might need to knock quite hard.

Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council Meeting

As you may know there was an MSCC meeting last night. They have them every month. A few of us went to see what happens at these things. Sarah, Paula, Mailin and I trudged up to the church in Grange Road, braving the cold. Steve arrived separately.

I must say, I had been prepared for several hours of monstrous boredom. Although I've never been to a council meeting before, my relatives have told me horror stories of their local councilsand I thought I was going to be in for a tough time.

It was actually very interesting, much to my surprise. There were lots of people there, many more than I'd expected. I found out all about the rise and fall of crime in the area, school uniforms and tree planting. I confess that I had recently wondered how it is that anyone ever finds out about things happening in their community. Well, anyone who knows me will happily tell me that I'm not the most observant person in the world, to which I usually have to reply, "Sorry, I didn't see you there." That said, this community council looks like an excellent way to keep informed of things going on in the area. I think I will go more often.


We made our case (well, I stood up and fumbled a few words about our campaign; I should have guessed and prepared something), with all of us chipping in ideas and comments. The discussion about parking was perhaps the longest of the evening. It does seem that others have similar pain to us which gives me hope that together we can do something about it.


I got to meet Monica Higgins, the florist in Argyle Place who founded the local traders' association. We were all keen to get the residents and the traders together so that we can come up with a solution that is to the mutual benefit of all.

So, there's going to be a little research group, charged with finding that solution and working out what statistics and facts would best make our case to the council. Monica will stand up for the traders, I will be representing zone 8, Cameron Rose and Assunta will support zone 7 and Dorothy Ryle will speak for zone S1 (I hope I have the names right). Our first meeting is set for Monday at 12, noon; I'll let you know how it goes.


Marilyne MacLaren, the Lib. Dem. Councillor for Marchmont was there, too. She offered to set up some meetings for us and to help us bring our case before the council. I'll get in touch with her and work through what the next steps should be.

Biggest thanks must go to Sarah for buy the beer in the pub afterwards!

I am an idiot who can't count

I've just noticed the number of residents' permits Ruth Muir says there are in Zone 8 and the number I have been saying there are differ. Mine come from the document F.125 which can be picked up from the parking permit people down at Waterloo Place.

I have just double checked and noticed that this time I count 755 spaces, not 738. Ahem, sorry, it would appear that I'm an idiot. My count doesn't include Richmond Terrace where the residents have their own special places (26 of them).

Still there is a difference of 74 spaces. Where do these come from? I'm not sure, and I've asked her, but it could be because the F.125 form talks about minimum number of spaces and maybe the council expect more to squeeze in.

It might be interesting to find out how many cars actually fit in some of the streets. In Marchmont Crescent with the bins now taking up residents' spaces, I wonder if we even have as many as 47. I will check to see.

The other part of Ruth's answer

Dear Mr Leather,

Residents’ Parking Zone 8

I refer to your recent enquiries regarding the above.

In response to your query please note the following.
The total number of permit holders in Zone 8 is 1225.
The total number of permit spaces in Zone 8 is 829.

On-street kerb side parking is at a premium within the city and the residents’ parking scheme is in place to ensure that residents have priority over other motorists during the restricted hours. Unfortunately, it is not possible to guarantee every permit holder a parking space within the street in which they reside.

In addition to residents’ parking bays, permit holders can park free of charge in pay and display bays within their zone between 8.30am and 9.00am. In addition, permit holders resident in Zones 1-4 can also park in pay and display bays in their zone between 5.30pm and 6.30pm, Monday to Friday and between 1.30pm and 6.30pm on Saturday.

With regard to pay and display spaces in Zone 8, please find attached a copy of schedule 5 of The Corporation of Edinburgh (Traffic Regulation; Restrictions on Waiting, Loading and Unloading, and Parking Places) Order 1973. This contains details of the number of pay and display bays within each street in zone 8.

The rules governing the residents’ permit scheme mean that any motorist meeting the residential qualifications in zones 1 to 8 may apply for a resident permit. Within the new extended Controlled Parking Zone, permits are limited to two per household.

We expect there to be an increase in the number of zone 8 permit holders as motorists who had been parking in the unrestricted streets just outside Zone 8 are no longer able to do so. However, we are currently considering the option of increasing the availability of spaces for permit holders in zone 8 and should anything change then all residents within the zone will be informed in due course.

I hope that this information is of use. If I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me on 0131 469 3698 or by e-mail at ruth.muir@edinburgh.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Ruth Muir
Customer Care Section
Parking Operations

A couple of answers from the council

I have just received an email from Ruth Muir, the poor sod at the council who seems to have been lumbered with answering all my questions. I had asked how many pay and display spaces there are in Zone 8, thinking this would be a good way to judge how effective dual use parking would be at redressing our problem. She has sent me this list:

Street	Spaces
Argyle Park Terrace	3
Argyle Place	6
Barclay Terrace	5
Bruntsfield Crescent	17
Bruntsfield Terrace	4
Gillespie Crescent	15
Gillespie Crescent	5
Hailes Street	5
Leamington Terrace	2
Leamington Terrace	4
Leamington Terrace	3
Leamington Terrace	3
Leamington Terrace	8
Leamington Terrace	8
Leamington Terrace	3
Leamington Terrace	4
Lower Gilmore Place	4
Lower Gilmore Place	4
Marchmont Crescent	5
Marchmont Crescent	1
Marchmont Crescent	6
Marchmont Road	3
Marchmont Road	3
Marchmont Street	9
Meadow Place	7
Spottiswoode Street	12
Upper Gilmore Place	6
Upper Grove Place	6
Upper Grove Place	8
Viewforth	7
Viewforth	2
Viewforth	2
Viewforth	6
Viewforth Square	4
Warrender Park Crescent	9
Warrender Park Road	2
Warrender Park Road	4
Warrender Park Road	3
Warrender Park Road	4
Warrender Park Road	3
Warrender Park Road	6
Warrender Park Road	5
Warrender Park Road	15
Warrender Park Terrace	14
Warrender Park Terrace	11
Westhall Gardens	7
Westhall Gardens	3
Westhall Gardens	3
Whitehouse Loan	5
Whitehouse Loan	14
Whitehouse Loan	12
Whitehouse Loan	3
Whitehouse Loan	3
Whitehouse Loan	3
Whitehouse Loan	3
Total	322

That wouldn't go all the way to sorting out our problem but it would certainly help.

BTW, the reason that some streets appear multiple times is that each contiguous block of spaces is listed separately. If your browser supports long titles then hovering your mouse over the street name will show the details of the block. Otherwise you can download the original document from http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/hleather/parking/schedule5.doc once I get round to putting it on the website.

A wee meeting at my house

There was a meeting at my house on Sunday night, a few of us sat down over some beer (thanks Steve :-)) to chat about the situation and to decide what we should do about it all. Here are the minutes from it - please, let me know if I've missed anything.

Mailin has made some posters for us and has been taking them round to some of the local shops. She's been talking to the owners there and finding out what they think of the new parking arrangements. It looks like they're not entirely chuffed. We all decided that we should try to join forces. At the moment there might be a bit of a conflict in the things we're asking for, so if we can sort something out to the mutual benefit of all then everything will go much more smoothly. If Monica (leading the traders' group) comes to the next MSCC meeting we'll talk then, otherwise we'll arrange something specially.

We discussed some possible ideas that might suit both groups. Steve suggested triple use spaces for all spaces. All spaces would then be free for residents, x hours ticket and regulations and free half hour loading. We'll find out what the traders have in mind.

Janne offered to help Mailin speaking to the local traders and putting posters up.

We decided that flyers on car windows would be a very good idea. Mailin, who's already done a great on the posters, volunteered to design the flyers. We'll put them on car windows at the same time that we deliver letters to people.

We thought we should try to get more articles published in the local newspapers about this. Hugh will ask Cameron Rose if he would like to set his hand to this. Steve will try to persuade his wife, Catrina, to give it a shot and Sarah said she would write something, too.

We also decided to split the letter delivery task into two bits. Preparing the envelopes and doing all the letter folding is just about as time consuming as doing the deliveries! Mailin and Sarah offered to do that bit and others will do the deliveries.

Evening News thinks residents parking in Marchmont Crescent has never been easier

Sarah has just pointed out that tonight there is an article about parking in the Evening News. A double page spread, no less. And what does it say? What misery of us Zone 8ers have they brought to light? Here are the first few of paragraphs:

Pulling into Marchmont Crescent, you can’t help but notice something has changed. There are no new buildings, not even any new shops, yet there’s something very different…
Then it hits you – there are parking spaces. Lots of EMPTY parking spaces. Just a few months ago, finding a free space in this heavily-polluted affluent area which borders Edinburgh’s green lung, the Meadows, was akin to finding a needle in a very large haystack.
Now the tables have turned, though the fact that the spaces are no longer free goes a long way to explaining why they are available.
It has been almost two months since the council’s Controlled Parking Zone extended into Marchmont and the Grange, and there is no doubt that the streets are quieter – finding a parking space has probably never been easier.

In Sarah’s words, “What are they ******* talking about?” All very nice for the top end of the Crescent, I’m sure they’re all dead chuffed and good luck to them. It is one thing to have no one notice the disaster here, it’s quite another to have them think that we’re swimming in spaces.
By the way, I think that the slant of the article is to suggest that businesses are getting a raw deal while residents have far too many spaces.

I think we need a letter to them fairly quickly. Would anyone like to volunteer?

Mailin has found this link to the article,