Silverknowes Road remains closed a year after a local councillor claimed it would be reopened.
The popular road was closed as part of the Council’s controversial ‘spaces for people’ programme that came in during the lockdown.
Since then cars have been banned from the route.
Traffic is now forced to access the beach by using Marine Drive However, construction traffic means the road is down to one lane on a bend.
In November 2023 local Liberal Democrat Councillor, Kevin Lang, took to social media to tell locals that the road “should be reopened early in the New Year.”
Fifteen months later the road is still closed.
One local, who declined to be named, told us that every day, there are “near misses” with the amount of traffic using Marine Drive.
The resident said: “Everyone can see that Silverknowes Road needs to be opened and I fail to understand why they cannot simply remove the bollards and open it.
“They have introduced several other routes for cyclists to take from Pennywell Road to the beach.
“They could easily open Silverknowes Road and just paint a bike lane down both sides.
“I have lived here all my life and there has not been a major issue with people having accidents on that road. In act there was a significant accident with a cyclist that was caused by the bollards.
“With the construction traffic parking on Marine Drive every day drivers are forced to drive on the opposite side of the road and there have been several near misses.
“Common sense is out the window.”
We previously told how the Council has spent more than half a million pounds installing ‘wands’ on streets across the city as part of their Spaces for People programme.
Figures released to North Edinburgh News under Freedom of Information also confirm that 2,550 ‘wands’ have been installed at a cost of £680,340.
The cost of purchasing and installing each ‘wand’ is broken down as follows: cycle defender £139, bollard £90 and £37.80 for them to be fitted – £266.80 per ‘wand’.
This cost doesn’t include the price of new signage and road markings.
The Council was allocated £5million of funding from Sustrans to make temporary changes to streets around the city.
Many streets in north Edinburgh had work done to them and these include Pennywell Road, Silverknowes Road, Stockbridge, Crewe Road South and Ferry Road.
Councillor Lang didn’t respond to our request for comment.
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