Hello!

There is a small window of opportunity to comment on the planning application for a proposed new road to provide access to Edinburgh Airport. The deadline is Sunday 14th March – apologies for the short notice.

Formation of new access road and active travel route from east of terminal building to Gogar Roundabout. (Planning application 21/00217/FUL) 

Edinburgh Airport claim that in 2019, Eastfield Road was at times over capacity in terms of traffic volumes. Whilst the current situation is very different as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Edinburgh Airport are expecting that their passenger numbers will return to pre-pandemic levels within three years and for growth to continue beyond that.

We believe that there are likely to be significant detrimental impacts such as increases in air and noise pollution in addition to a poorer active travel situation (Quiet Route 9 will be impacted) if this application is approved in its current form.  Corstorphine is already dominated by traffic and the phenomenon of induced demand stemming from the new road coupled with the large housing developments due to be built in West Craigs, will result in traffic levels increasing even further. 

Call to action

The plans are available to view on the City of Edinburgh Council Planning Portal (reference 21/00217/FUL) – view the front page of the portal or visit the application summary direct.

You should register your comments by 14th March 2021.  You might like to use the following points in your response.

  • it is contrary to the Scottish Government Climate Change Plan that kilometres travelled by car will be reduced 20% by 2030
  • it is contrary to the City of Edinburgh Council City Mobility Plan hierarchy of transport modes
  • it is contrary to City of Edinburgh Council commitment to be net carbon neutral by 2030
  • it is contrary to the Local Development Plan TRA9, as it detrimentally impacts Quiet Route 9 at the Myreton Drive junction
  • it provides very poor quality active travel provision, via shared use paths, multiple non-signalised crossings and no continuous footway over minor junctions which is contrary to Edinburgh Local Transport Strategy (specifically PCycle2)
  • the traffic analysis models the network with the assumption that WETA improvements featuring an additional lane on the Gogar west gyratory and improved signal timings will be in place, but this has not been committed to by City of Edinburgh Council and the model is therefore not representative of real-world impact based on existing road infrastructure. In practice, this will mean increased congestion and delay.
  • the traffic modelling only uses an enhanced Gogar roundabout with extra lane and amended signal timings, which CEC has not budgeted for, or committed to undertaking in the near future. 
  • the air quality modelling report uses baseline data from the transport assessment and so the report is misleading if it’s using baseline traffic modelling data that is not reflective of the current infrastructure. 

The Low Traffic Corstorphine team