There are other types of anti-social behaviour, however. As people on the Ryehills know, driving your car at speed through a residential neighbourhood is anti-social. The traffic calming measures in the Ryehills have been successful in deterring the anti-social behaviour of some drivers. It has been one of Edinburgh Council’s policies to create child-friendly zones across the city. It makes for a more secure environment for families, but the Ryehills is also an area where each house is quite individual. It is a corner of Edinburgh with its own character. It is safe, pleasant and free from litter. Areas like this provide a high quality of life for the people who live there.
Anything that threatens or spoils these qualities should be resisted. It is vitally important that development or planning does not threaten communities with their own individual traits and feel. It would be self-defeating if Edinburgh’s economic development spoils the old, beautiful, locales of which people are proud. We are a World Heritage site after all.
As one resident noted to me: ‘There’s no point having traffic calming, and then putting more cars into the area.’
Again, as a councillor, I believe that you have to work hard, to persevere with an issue and to respond to the communities strongly felt wishes.
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