A leper colony, almost

Been a busy old week and set to get busier. I have looked at my diary and there is no free night or weekend till 22 December. I promise I will wilt long before then.

Sunday was the day before Mike's 57th birthday so it was a celebratory brunch for the family who almost overstayed their welcome.
Yesterday was PEP, constituency surgery then taking me old ma out to do her Christmas shopping...didn't get home till after 8pm so it was a long day.
Today, more PEP then a West Pilton/West Granton Community Council tonight. That was an interesting meeting: Allan Jackson managed to get a TIE, city development and planning official all into the same room at the same time in order that the community could quiz them about the access road. He deserves a medal for perseverance (I bet he was a BB when he was a lad).

The upshot is that TIE hasn't yet agreed to the amendment in their business plan that's needed to allow the access road to stay open permanently. Understandably, this caused a furore. Without the access road the West Pilton community is coralled through bad streetscape design within tight narrow boundary roads - effectively cut off from all main arterial routes and no direct way into the new waterfront. A leper colony, almost. And that's just plain wrong and needs to be designed out.

At my suggestion TIE has agreed to come back within the month with a cost tag to amending the current proposal and transport has agreed to come up with a 'community appraisal' that looks at what happens in terms of community and environmental impact if the access road isn't kept open. I haven't given up on the possibility of changing minds - when a cause is right then right thinking people can generally be persuaded to support it.