Rat-running and large vehicles (Bath St, Straiton Pl etc)

[sicker]

Have a shifty at my post on page one. I wonder if the Police, Fire Brigade and Council have had a joint consultative meeting about these 'new' proposals?

[Puerto bella]

PB - I passed the railings yesterday and could not see what all the excitement was about. What am I missing?

Give her a chance! She's putting the fairy lights up at the weekend

Where have you been POP - apart from obviously sitting at your desk up there at Gringots?

Issue in a nut shell from Pb and family:

sheister drivers who all use our streets for rat running,
keeking huge 16.5m long lorries delivering to Co-op, Espe, Beach House and Chip Shop;
corner taken off house 3 times;
us going mental about it for years and years and years .....;
false promises and feigned interest from crap councillors and community council traffic group;
then big SNP man Bridgeman offers help;
He comes, spends time seeing what its like to put up with the sh*te level of road safety and amenity that we now have in this street,
knocks heads together and
kicks ass in council departments = sorted.

Result:
Pb - faith in humanity restored and
not on verge of going mental at next driver who is driving on pavement when I step out door.

[SoupDragon]

See our railings have a number plate decorating it already

[rmolehusband]

Where have you been POP - apart from obviously sitting at your desk up there at Gringots?

Nearly snorted out my tea when I read that one

[Puerto bella]

Glad it tickled your fancy rmolehub.
Gringots slightly more tame that the usual turn of phrase in Edinbourg for such places ie smack generator - maybe a bit too passe and Trainspotting for 2012?

[Porty]

Ignorance abounds!

[Pal of Porty]

Ask a simple question and get my business slagged off - magic stuff.

[Puerto bella]

I'm sorry if I offended you Pop - I had mistaken this for the lion's den that it normally is.
You're clearly not as rude and obsessive as Porty and Sean.

[Puerto bella]

Thanks to the wreckless 3663 delivery truck driver who rampages our streets on his route to our neighbours at Espe or Beach House.....I've lost track as to which artic visits which premises, the railing's been bashed so much its over at an angle already - it happened exactly a month to the day it was installed.
Any more witnesses to the event in Bath St on friday afternoon (17th) between lunchtime and 3.30ish let the cops know, council or PM me and I'll pass it on.

[Pal of Porty]

I'm sorry if I offended you Pop - I had mistaken this for the lion's den that it normally is.
You're clearly not as rude and obsessive as Porty and Sean.

No offence taken - I know the railing you are talking about now and did indeed see it all bent on my way home last night. I thought they may have been better off continuing the railings right around the corner.

[Puerto bella]

I know - we all knew they wouldnt last long.
A different solution is now being sought so watch this space.

[Epykat]

A different solution is now being sought so watch this space.

Would that be the reinforced concrete wall solution?

[Puerto bella]

Indeed. Is it too much to ask that we dont have artics coming down these streets and a size limit on vehicles?
Please Espe, Beach House and Chip Shop can you get together sort the delivery and bin chaos that your neighbours have to live with every day? Why cant we have a mutually acceptable solution?

[Makaveli]

Up on Brunstane Road there is a sign saying unsuitable for ariticulated vehicles just before the bridge - that get's ignored on a regular basis by lorry drivers!!!

[Bazza]

I watched a lorry ignore the "high winds -no lorries" sign on the Road Bridge at New Year. It got blown in half

[seanie]

The Neighbourhood Partnership will be considering the following report at its next meeting.

[wangi]

The Neighbourhood Partnership will be considering the following report at its next meeting.

...

10
The proposed parking restrictions will displace approximately 35 cars on each street (70 vehicles in total); however, motorists will be able to use surrounding streets and locations where current parking restrictions are limited to peak times only. There is no doubt that this will put additional parking pressure on these surrounding streets, however, it is judged that only the implementation of a controlled, permit only parking zone within Portobello would ultimately manage the overall parking capacity in the area .

and no mention of the parking order which removes further spaces from bottom of Bath St....

[Puerto bella]

Today at 9.30am a lorry trying to reverse in Bath St crashed into my house - again. Why are 32 tonne trucks allowed on resi streets? He says he 'didnt see' our house. If that's the case - god help out kids.
Please be vigilant if you are in the street.

Please also will the local businesses - Espe, Beach House and Fish and Chip shop on Prom take responsibility for how your goods are delivered to your businesses. We all love what you add to our community but the impact the tonnage of vehicles coming daily to your premises have on our safety, amenity and sanity is completely unacceptable. The vehicles causing the problems are the ones that come to you daily. Thankyou.

[gillian]

They should be made to park at the Co op and trolley everything down the road. Having said that I have seen some pretty hairy situations at the co op when delivery lorries reverse in to the car park.

[SoupDragon]

Good grief if a lorry driver cant see your house he shouldnt be on the road!
How bad must his eyesight be?

[Franck]

Today at 9.30am a lorry trying to reverse in Bath St crashed into my house - again. Why are 32 tonne trucks allowed on resi streets? He says he 'didnt see' our house. If that's the case - god help out kids.
Please be vigilant if you are in the street.

Please also will the local businesses - Espe, Beach House and Fish and Chip shop on Prom take responsibility for how your goods are delivered to your businesses. We all love what you add to our community but the impact the tonnage of vehicles coming daily to your premises have on our safety, amenity and sanity is completely unacceptable. The vehicles causing the problems are the ones that come to you daily. Thankyou.

Hope the drivers employers take responsibility for his actions.Not sure businesses can do anything about how their goods are delivered, though.

[Sceptic]

Part of the problem might just be a "Satnav" one, drivers sometimes rely on satnavs to give them directions to avoid bottlenecks, however satnavs do not know if the way is a rat run or not. There have been instances of HGV drivers being sent up cart tracks! How we tell satnav makers of the problem I do not know.

[SoupDragon]

Thing with blaming sat navs is the driver has to use some common sense, I've seen drivers up town obviously looking at the sat nav and ignoring the diversion signs, no entry signs then being surprised to find themselves in tram works.
And you can't blame a sat nav for reversing into someones house, its not like Puerto Bella ran out with giant lego and built it just as the lorry was unloaded.

Its been a problem for years, I remember as a child, standing at grannys window, watching coaches trying to get round Bath Street/ Straiton Place.I'm sure Mr Rudge thought they were about to come right through his shop.

I really dont know what the answer is, I'm sure a one way system would help though

[sicker]

Tommy Smith (Mr. Rudge's predecessor) didn't have that problem, lorries were a lot smaller in his days.

[Grunk]

The problem with using sat navs in Edinburgh (or should I say Heisenburgh) Is that you can never be certain whether a street has roadworks on until you turn into it.

[Puerto bella]

..but we dont have roadworks...or diversions here. There are some lorries that come here by mistake but the daily deliveries are to Espe, Beach House and Fish and Chip Shop. The worst offender being Espe with the other two being equal second. Espe's volume of deliveries are clearly as a result of its tiny kitchen and not having storage....Today I filmed at the front door for a few mins and in that time - 3663 artic, J&B lorry and 3 vans - all in the space of a few mins when I got back at around 1ish....Deliveries and waste vehicles make up the largest number of heavy vehicles in this street. If smaller vehicles could service the premises and a schedule for deliveries agreed as happens in other parts of the city then we're starting to talk some sense.

[fresian]

Wouldn't describe all councillors as crap. some of them actually took their constituents views on board when they knocked back the overdevelopment of a site at Stockbridge

[Puerto bella]

that's democracy....despite even the council selling the site to the developer for a vastly inflated sum

[James A]

..but we dont have roadworks...or diversions here. There are some lorries that come here by mistake but the daily deliveries are to Espe, Beach House and Fish and Chip Shop. The worst offender being Espe with the other two being equal second. Espe's volume of deliveries are clearly as a result of its tiny kitchen and not having storage....Today I filmed at the front door for a few mins and in that time - 3663 artic, J&B lorry and 3 vans - all in the space of a few mins when I got back at around 1ish....Deliveries and waste vehicles make up the largest number of heavy vehicles in this street. If smaller vehicles could service the premises and a schedule for deliveries agreed as happens in other parts of the city then we're starting to talk some sense.

Why should the Espy change its deliveries just because you want them to?
Can't believe you filmed the activities at front door. You need to get out more.

[Puerto bella]

Thankyou James A for your wisdom on the matter. Knock on the door and we'll have the conversation about the lorries, next time you'd dodging one on the pavement down this way. Resorting to filming what goes on down here is the only way, believe me. We all live here - all we're asking for is a bit of neighbourliness, order and control and to have the dialogue with the premises - it happens all over the city but not here.

[Puerto bella]

Join in the Portobello Traffic Nightmares group on facebook James A and contribute your thoughts on there. Rather than hiding on here.

[regent]

the end of bath street is not the place to try to turn a rather large lorry. There are many parked cars, houses, railings, children on way to school, blind spots etc. Any driver who has to go down there knows that it is a total night mare. It would seem to me that there should be a size and weight restriction on the road and that vehicles over a certain size should not be able to access the street for any purpose.
PB well done you for raising all of our awareness to this issue. I have 3 children under 7 yrs old who walk to school and back every day and I am concerned for their safety with so many large vehicles who think nothing of mounting the pavement in their efforts to turn. It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt.
However, I will sleep better tonight knowing that the bins have been emptied and the beach house and the espy have their deliveries.
I assume that your efforts with the filming were to demonstrate the problems and raise awareness of the risks, dangers and menace that you and others face PB. This is a community issue which it should be possible to come to a solution which maintains a safe environment for all.

[Puerto bella]

Yes Regent. Maybe James thinks I'm some sado with nothing better to do than curtain twitch. I can assure him that is far from the truth. My business is affected by the lorries, my home is in proven danger and my personal safety - multiply that by the number of folk who also live here and you've got a fair number of folk who experience the impact of the cumulative impact of the lorries. I am not the local loon just an extremely concerned and p'd off neighbour. He can relay that to his employer but then they know already how I feel.

[Epykat]

Speaking from experience in that my Nana lived at 43, we lived at 36 and my Aunty lived at some other 40 number near the bottom (sorry, Makaveli, I know this upsets you )and there were even more businesses (a baker's, amusements, a grocers, cafe on the Prom etc...) plus two pubs down there, we didn't have all these lorries going up and down all day every day. Scotmid lorries weren't a problem either, they turned right when they came out of the store back onto the High Street. Obviously the increase in parked cars and the wheelie bins haven't helped but it's hardly progress when you're having more problems now than we did 25 years ago. In fact, when we moved to Marlborough Street we encouraged the kids to go that way to the Annexe because it was the safest route!

[Makaveli]

^^^^^^^