Hansard

I congratulate Cameron Buchanan on bringing this debate to the chamber.

Nothing comes to my inbox more often than the strategic plan and the effects of the proposed local development plan. It is the thing that we have to deal with in the constituency office. I find myself in agreement with Cameron Buchanan’s speech; there is also much to what Sarah Boyack said.

In my constituency, consultation by the City of Edinburgh Council has been nothing short of abysmal. There is also a feeling that deals have been done. Local people, particularly in Cammo and Maybury, have no faith in the process, simply because of the dismal way in which the City of Edinburgh Council has handled their objections.

In a recent Evening News article, John McLellan mentioned that something like one quarter of the total number of objections to the local development plan deal with the western part of Edinburgh. That is because the traffic and environmental situation in that area is dire. The Queensferry Road corridor, particularly Barnton, and the Corstorphine Road corridor, particularly Maybury, and St John’s Road, are some of the most polluted areas in the United Kingdom. Despite that, some planner has decided that, although there are fields available and plenty of space for development, the main issues report need propose absolutely no plans to show how the infrastructure will support development, both in those areas and along the corridors of two of the busiest roads in Edinburgh.

I feel that I have to support my constituents. For many years, there has been talk about the transport and pollution problems in those areas, yet despite various questions there are still plans that cover transport from Newbridge to Maybury but no further. A common response is, “Don’t worry about it; the tram will deal with that.” The tram will not deal with that.

The transport assessments are, quite frankly, unbelievable, on the ground that they say that they can mitigate against future growth in traffic, when in fact the problem is here, right now. I hope that the minister listens to what is being said. I know that the City of Edinburgh Council has a difficult decision to make. Nobody is denying that there is a housing shortage in the area, but we cannot just dump houses down and hope that the roads will support the amount of traffic that goes along them. Maybury and Cammo have serious problems and East Craigs is in a shocking position, as it has only one road out, on to Maybury Road, which has two of the busiest junctions, at Barnton and Maybury.

The City of Edinburgh Council has done nothing to discuss the problems with people and come up with solutions. We have held public meetings, but nobody believes what is being said about strategic planning, because they feel that the information that has come back to them is way off the mark. I make a plea to the City of Edinburgh Council to start getting its act together to do the work that it must do to convince people that the houses that are required can go into those areas.

Queensferry is another area that has just been told that 1,000 more houses will be thrown down there. There has been no consultation. It is absolutely abysmal. Before I carry on and get into greater degrees of problems with my council colleagues, I will simply reiterate that there are difficulties, as Cameron Buchanan said. I appreciate Sarah Boyack’s efforts in arranging the meeting that took place but, as has been pointed out and as people saw at the meeting, the convener did not have any real answers. That is the difficulty that we face.