Greener Leith News - Greener Travel

Bawsinch Bike Ride Report

2010-08-30T14:41:48Z

As you can see, we had a fantastic turn-out to our August We Love Leith Bike Ride. Each month we've been meeting at 10.30am on the last Saturday of the month outside the Mal Maison Hotel on the Shore, and embarking on a short, family friendly bike ride.

This month, we were delighted that we had a huge range of ages, bikes and abilities turn out for our ride to Bawsinch Nature Reserve, and despite a couple of punctures, we had a fantastic time. Emily, our Greener Leith audio reporter took part in a We Love Leith ride for the first time, and interviews some of the participants in the audio clip below.

Some members of a new bike club, dedicated to the joys of owning a Brompton folding bike came along for the ride. You can hear Emily try one out, finding out first-hand from the Bromtonites why the bikes inspire such loyalty.

We must reiterate our thanks to Ken Knowles, the volunteer convenor of the Bawsinch Nature Reserve who gave up his Saturday afternoon to patiently guide everyone around the nature reserve. Although we didn't see any otters, everyone was hugely impressed with his tales of how the area had been revived from a scrubby patch of wasteland, and turned into something hugely valuable for wildlife.

You can see more photos that people took on the day in the Greener Leith photo pool on flickr.com

Listen!

If you have iTunes installed on your computer you can subscribe to our audio as a podcast by clicking here.

New dreams for an old waterfront

2010-08-27T08:19:21Z

On Thursday the 26th of August, Greener Leith was lucky enough to be invited to a Charrette (that's a workshop in Architect speak) organised by the council, at Ocean Terminal.

The aim of the workshop was to look again at what had been achieved in the regeneration of the waterfront area (that's Granton, Newhaven and Leith Docks to most people) as part of a process for developing a new Area Development Framework. We were expressly told that this wasn't supposed to change any of the existing planning permissions that apply to the area, but the idea was that the workshop would 'influence' the thinking of key landowners like Forth Ports and the city planners in the future.

There were about 50 people in the audience, who were a mixture of politicians, landowners, councillors, housing association staff, public agencies, business representatives, and local organisations like Greener Leith and the community councils.

In the morning, we were asked to consider a few questions. First up, we were asked, "What kind of place will the Waterfront be if we continue to do what we have been doing?"

The post-it notes came back with words like 'souless', 'fragmented', 'monolithic', and 'inhuman' on them. Summing up, one of our facilitators, Diarmaid Lawlor, for Architecture & Design Scotland, told a story about how his two year old was 'bored out of his mind' when he took him on a walk along the waterfront path along the Western Edge of Western Harbour (the path in the photo above) even though the setting is totally spectacular and the place should, or could, in theory, be as exciting as Princes Street.

We then moved onto considering what kind of place the Waterfront should be. And this is where we asked for your ideas via Twitter. We got a huge response, and below we provide a flavour of some of the things that people outside the room were asking for:

We did our best to make sure all these tweets were transferred to post-it notes and added to the wall, to be considered by planners later. As you can see - it ended up pretty full!

Next up we heard from a Scot living in Manchester, Neil McInroy from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. He proposed that a successful place is a 'resilient' place. So, for example, when it is shocked by a recession, or public sector cut backs, it can bounce back quickly. And when it is presented with an opportunity, it can react fast to make the most of it. Whilst he explained this, he was actually jumping up and down to illustrate the importance of 'boinginess' in places, as he put it.

It was interesting to hear planners and architects speaking about 'resilience' as a 'buzz word,' - this concept of local resilience is also a hot topic amongst environmental groups too. We also heard lot's of other metaphors to explain why the old approach of "Master Planning" hadn't worked. Rather than plan out absolutely everything, the council should 'conduct more and play less,' and regeneration is like a 'petri dish' where the council just needs to set the right conditions for desirable things to grow. The main metaphor of the day, was the body metaphor. If the council can focus on getting the 'beating hearts' of the neighbourhood right, then, so the current thinking goes, the rest will follow.

He encouraged us all to think about regeneration as a process that involves the Private Sector, the Public Sector and the Social Sector, and one of the exercises we did in groups was to try to estimate the relative sizes of these three economies, and the strength of the linkages between them. The implication being that a 'healthy heart' has all of these three areas pulsing along together.

In our group, looking at Leith, we came to the conclusion that the private sector was slightly bigger than the public sector, with the voluntary/social sector making up about 20% of the economy. However, when talking about the local economy it's quite hard to work out.

We made the point that some large businesses, like the new ASDA at Western Harbour, might actually remove money from the local economy as even though they've created jobs, they've also contributed to the demise of nearby businesses. Research by the New Economics Foundation undertaken in England showed that £1 spent with a local independent business is worth £1.76 to the local economy, and only 36 pence if it is spent in a business based outside the area. What does that really mean? Well, everytime a new large supermarket opens, 276 jobs are lost in the local economy.

A local economic resilience strategy might therefore need to look at how smaller, independent businesses can be attracted to the waterfront - and try not to rely so much on 'big box' retail.

However, we also heard how public sector service cuts can impact on the regeneration process. We heard a story from one resident of the new Granton flats, who had moved there with their family soon after the flats were built. Since they moved in, the recession kicked in, building stopped, the local primary school is to be closed, the bus services have been reduced, the tram connection to Granton looks more and more unlikely and they are stuck in negative equity unable to move anywhere else.

This personal story illustrated better than any amount of 'place making theory,' how public sector cuts can impact on the regeneration process too. If the city needs the Waterfront regeneration process to make progress, they must think about what impact any new round of cuts will have. This said, there were others in the audience who pointed out that it took 30 years to build Charlotte Square, and that the scale of the Waterfront regeneration is huge - perhaps patience is required and perhaps also people were led to believe that everything could be built in a day. What is it they say about Rome?

In the afternoon, we did more workshops, trying to identify the 'hearts' of the various neighbourhoods and the linkages in-between them. In Leith, we'd already done a widespread consultation on the top 10 local destinations and so the 'hearts' of Leith (no football jokes here please) we came up with were:

The Foot of the Walk
Leith Links
The Shore
Ocean Terminal

We also came up with a 'future heart' for the area - the docks area between Ocean Terminal and Western Harbour. This area has tremendous potential, with proposals to improve Ocean Terminal, ferries to Fife, and a more accessible waterfront.

And we came up with a possible 'broken heart' - the proposed Biomass Plant. We all felt that this proposal would have such a negative impact on the other local 'hearts,' especially the Shore, and Ocean Terminal areas, that it would in fact undermine the resilience of the local economy. It's a little known fact, but Leith has more Michellen starred restaurants than any other area of Scotland. Who will come to Leith to spend good money on a fine meal at the Shore, if they will be eating in the shadow of giant power station?

What happens next? The planners now intend to go away and come up with a revised local area development framework that will take account of all this feedback, with a view to guiding both public sector and private sector investment to take more account of the value of these existing centres - and the aspirations for the future neighbourhoods that may be built along the Waterfront.

Apparently, in about three weeks time, we'll be invited back to see the first draft of the revised area development framework. Needless to say, we'll be tweeting from that meeting too - and this time hopefully our phone battery will last a bit longer.

Greener Leith would like to thank everyone who gave us their ideas by Twitter on the day. You can follow Greener Leith on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/greenerleith

Festival of Politcs: Zero Carbon Event Report

2010-08-19T20:59:14Z

We couldn't make it to the 'Zero Carbon Scotland' session at the Festival of Politics yesterday, so we're delighted that prolific Edinburgh blogger, train guard, and former Leith resident, Cowrin, wrote this guest post for our benefit.

Nestling in amongst it’s bigger cousins during the Edinburgh August madness is the little-known Festival of Politics. Started a few years ago, it sees the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood swing open its debating chamber and committee rooms to discussions as diverse as Europe, genetics, football and architecture.

Environmental issues are usually well-catered for, with this year being no exception. Today, I went along to a session entitled Zero Carbon Scotland Of The Future. Chaired by Rob Edwards of the Sunday Herald, three panellists were invited to give a short 10 minute talk on an issue and then we had around 25 minutes of questions from the audience at the end.

I mentioned to a friend before the session started that perhaps these events were a bit like preaching to the converted. After all, you’re not likely to just stumble into a talk about decarbonising Scotland. That remark was to come back to me later, but the beauty of the Festival of Politics is that you tend to get a wide range of views heard in both the discussions and the questions.

First up to speak was Professor Stuart Haszeldine of the University of Edinburgh, who gave us a brief run-down of Scotland’s energy mix and where carbon was being emitted. He seemed quite taken with biochar as a solution to some of our problems, but frustratingly just teased us with throwaway mentions of Renewable Energy, Nuclear and Carbon Capture & Storage. Biomass projects, like that proposed by Forth Energy for Leith, were completely absent from his talk, as were any proposals on how we can decarbonise our energy supply (other than saying there should be a “mix”).

Next to speak was Rachel Nunn of Going Carbon Neutral Stirling. She chose the subject of food, dealing during her talk with waste, farming methods, distribution and nutrition. There was an elephant in the room, though. In fact there was a herd of cattle in the room. She never mentioned meat. Reducing our consumption of meat can reduce our carbon emissions immensely, but it wasn’t given a mention and wasn’t asked about later.

Last up was John Pinkard of Transform Scotland, who campaign for what they call a “more sensible transport system”. But again, we were left frustrated by a lack of detail. He mentioned that the first thing we should do is decarbonise our public transport network. Okay, how? It was left to our imaginations to fill in the blanks about electric buses or hydrogen taxis. And incredibly, sitting less than a mile from streets which have been ripped up over the last couple of years, there was no mention of Edinburgh’s Trams.

The brochure had promised us “some of Scotland’s leading experts describe what Scotland could be like after carbon!” Unfortunately, they failed to live up to this promise, and if you were “the converted” then you had heard all they had to say before, and any new nuggets of information were left just hanging in the air.

I would have preferred Professor Haszeldine to have told us how our energy mix could feasibly look in the future (and not just how we’d like it to look), for Rachel Nunn to have told us how she was managing to turn Stirling carbon neutral and what lessons could be applied to the whole of Scotland, and for John Pinkard to outline what Scotland’s transport network is going to look like in 20 years time and how it will get there.

But I mentioned at the start that they were probably preaching to the converted. I was wrong. A couple of climate change ‘deniers’ in the audience managed to put points across at the end, to the great glee of one of them who actually punched the air in delight when the proposed Hunterston coal power station was mentioned! Still, if we’re going to reach the government’s carbon reduction targets, then we have to preach to the unconverted too.

I enjoyed the session even if it turned out to be slightly less than billed, and could quite happily have sat through another hour of discussion and debate if that had brought more detail forth from the guests. But perhaps that is another beauty of the Festival of Politics - it unashamedly makes you think, and want to go and research the topics further.

Fay Young has also blogged recently about her experiences in the Festival of Politics too.

Photo credit: Scottmliddell

Bawsinch bike ride

2010-08-09T09:50:18Z

We're pleased to announce our next We Love Leith bike ride will be on Saturday August the 28th. Our last, "Gormley hunt" bike ride was so much fun, we've been looking around for other 'themed' rides. So, we're delighted to confirm that our next ride will see us take in a guided tour of the Bawsinch and Duddingston Nature Reserve.

We Love Leith August Bike Ride

Plan your trips with EveryTrail Mobile Travel Guides

We'll be going into the part of the reserve that is not normally open to the public, so it's a great opportunity to see inside one of the more secluded parts of the city. The reserve includes the only remaining natural fresh water loch in Edinburgh, and is home to a wide variety of native trees, otters, herons and other wading birds. Although the route is quite similar to our May ride, we've decided to go via Portobello this time.

In total the route is just short of 10 miles in total. The route, whereever possible is on traffic free, or low traffic paths, although some of the route is on slightly busier roads. We welcome cyclists of all abilities and families, provided everyone wears a helmet and that children under 16 have an adult to keep track of them. You should also note that the ride will sometimes be on gravelly surfaces, so a hybrid, tourer or mountain bike may be better than a road bike for this ride.

Please note, that it may be advisable to wear slightly more robust footwear than you would normally wear for cycling, as it may get a bit muddy in the nature reserve. You should also bring a packed lunch, a lock for your bike and clothing appropriate for the weather.

August Family Bike Challenge

2010-07-30T15:35:21Z

The Bike Station are running a new cycle challenge in August, that aims to build on the success of their Workplace challenge that got loads of people cycling in Edinburgh for the first time earlier this year. This time, they're running a Friends and Family cycle challenge. Here's what they say on their website:

From Monday 2^nd to Sunday 22^nd August 2010, the Friends and Family Cycle Challenge wants everyone to get involved, cycling wherever you want and at anytime you want over the three-week Challenge. There are chances to win some fantastic prizes, including haircuts at a top Edinburgh salon, class passes for Bristo Yoga School, mountain biking day out from MB7, a family meal at Henderson’s and some stylish panniers!

Once registered on the website, individuals can log any cycle trip for 10 minutes or more and they will be entered into the daily prize draw. The more times they cycle, the more chance they have of winning irrespective of the distance.

The Friends and Family Cycle Challenge is part of A better way to work, a project by the Bike Station, which aims to encourage people to leave the car at home and use more sustainable means of transport, and is in collaboration with the CTC Challenge for Change.

Esther Halcrow, Challenge Co-ordinator said: "The plan is simple – as well as getting more people registered for the Challenge, we’re asking the people we already have cycling to encourage their friends and family to get involved. We’re looking to encourage at least 400 people, who haven’t been on a bike in the last year, to try cycling. It’s a great form of exercise to do with friends and family, and more importantly, it’s fun!”

You can register yourself now at www.edinburghcyclechallenge.org.uk and start logging trips. There are Gold Screen Dominion Cinema tickets for new cyclists who register and for those who encourage a new cyclist to register!

For more information, including prizes, please visit the website www.edinburghcyclechallenge.org.uk or contact Esther Halcrow on 0131 667 3558.

As part of the Challenge, the Bike Station plan to hold a unique mass cycling event in Holyrood Park on the 22nd of August, so keep the day free. We'll post more information on the event as soons as we've got it.

The following weekend, we'll be restarting our own We Love Leith monthly bike rides, with an exclusive, free guided tour of the Bawsinch Nature reserve. So keep the 28th of August free if you'd like to join us for that ride and we'll release more details of the route later in the month.

Traffic reduction on the Shore

2010-07-28T09:00:37Z

Steps to make the Shore a more appealing place for locals and visitors alike, took a big step forwards yesterday when the City of Edinburgh Council agreed to fund detailed feasibility and further community consultation work. This action has been approved in response to a motion lodged by local Councillor Marjorie Thomas. Her motion read as follows:

"Council notes the success of the Traffic Free Day on the Shore in September 2009 and the local support from many residents and traders for reducing through traffic on the Shore, particularly the stretch from Sandport Bridge to Bernard Street.

Council, therefore, calls for a report into the feasibility of removing through traffic, excepting emergency vehicles, public transport and cycles, from Sandport Bridge to Bernard Street to be provided to the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee within two Committee cycles."

There is a growing groundswell of support for the idea that something needs to be done to reduce the levels of traffic using the Shore - particularly the HGV lorries that use the route as a short cut from the docks to Ferry Road.

Last year we organised Car Free Day on the Shore to coincide with European Mobility Week, and apart from a few local residents who were unfortunately inconvenienced because they had their cars moved without their knowledge, the event was largely viewed as a success.

Local group the Friends of the Water of Leith are at the forefront of the campaign, representing both businesses and residents in the area. They've uncovered several stories from local residents and businesses that highlight the problems high traffic levels are causing. These suggest that the historic buildings on The Shore are being damaged by the levels of traffic using the street, with reports of buildings cracking and shaking as a consequence of the larger vehicles using the streets. The traffic also causes disturbance and distress to residents living close to the road.

In addition, we wrote to 30,000 households in Leith and invited them to take part with our Future Travel Action plan. We asked residents the open question "What would help you walk, cycle or use public transport more?" More than 300 people responded to our survey and the most popular idea, by quite a long way, turned out to be measures to cut traffic on the Shore too.

It is clear that cutting traffic on the Shore could provide a number of benefits to the whole area. These include:

Better quality of life for local residents.
Improved road safety for pedestrians and cyclists in the area.
More opportunity for job creation/retention in the area, particularly in catering.
Improved scope to promote the area as a "destination" to tourists.
Better support for environmentally friendly transport modes like cycling and walking.

However, the devil is in the detail and so we are pleased that the council is going to put in resources to work with local people to uncover how various traffic options will impact on the area. Some of the options we've proposed might be considered include:

Banning through car and lorry traffic, whilst leaving the road open to buses, pedestrians and cyclists (local access would be maintained).
As above, but additionally, making the street a one way street.
Fully closing the street to all motorised traffic (apart from local access) at weekends or Sundays.
Blocking the street at Sandport Place (outside Cafe Truva) removing all through traffic, but retaining parking and local access.

We've also received some concerned comments from some local residents too.

We've recieved a couple of comments during our consultation process that relate to local car access for residents, whether this is accessing private "off-street" parking or helping relatives with mobility problems to the shops. All of the options outlined above would preserve local access, and so people who live on, or near The Shore, would still be able to access their off-street parking spaces, and people would still be able to park for long enough to pick up and drop off people with mobility problems.

A second concern is over the impact on traffic levels elsewhere in Leith. It is of course true, that measures to reduce through traffic on the Shore may displace traffic to other nearby roads. However, it's a common misperception that traffic levels are 'fixed'. In fact, people choose their routes and their mode of transport according to which is most convenient. This means that over time people will avoid driving particular streets if they know they are congested, or they will take public transport, or cycle, or walk.

Other cities, like Copenhagen, have learnt that they can gradually 'manage traffic' out of their residential areas, because car traffic is in effect 'self managing'. In Leith, there is a wider decision to be taken - which streets should be regarded as arterial routes and which streets should be treated as residential streets?

It is possible that the traffic reduction measures on the Shore, if they get the go ahead, would not physically happen before the tram makes it to Leith. So, residents of the city will be able to take the tram to the Shore - there's two stops nearby. Also, by redesigning the street, it will become more appealing to pedestrians and cyclists - so it will encourage more people to use other forms of transport.

Also, the traffic modelling undertaken by TIE shows that when the tram is built it will reduce traffic throughout the harbour area. Therefore measures to cut traffic on The Shore will help to ensure that through traffic remains on the current arterial routes, rather than "rat running" through streets, like Henderson street that are not really wide enough to cope and largely residential in character.

Furthermore, the council and SUSTRANS are developing plans to develop a quality cycle link from the western end of Portobello promenade, to Sandport place, in order to provide a safe route East-West route across the city. So, if implemented this plan will also help to encourage more people to cycle, helping to cut local traffic.

You may have wondered about the photograph at the top of this blog post. No, it isn't Leith. But it is a European city with a proud maritime history, at a similar latitude to Leith. It is the Nyhaven, in Copenhagen. Once it was little more than a car park, just as The Shore now, is not much more than a bus station.

However, now it has been fully pedestrianised, and is a 'must visit' for tourists visiting the city. If hundreds of people are prepared to pay to eat outside in Copenhagen, then why not in Leith? Afterall, we already have more Michelin starred eateries than anywhere else in Scotland. Surely, we should be playing to our strengths if we are to keep jobs in our neighbourhood?

You can read the full council report here:

http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=142037

Sponsor Al

2010-07-23T09:51:13Z

Alastair Tibbitt, Development Manager for Greener Leith, is about to embark on a 3 day long-distance sponsored cycle ride from Edinburgh to Newcastle, in support of the sustainable travel charity SUSTRANS.

Alastair said, 'I enjoyed our Gormley hunt bike ride so much, I thought I'd take the opportunity to cycle to Newcastle to see their big brother. It'll take three days, to get there, but if I can raise some cash for SUSTRANS along the way then that'll be marvelous."

SUSTRANS have already invested in detailed design plans to build a quality cycle path from the Western end of Portobello promenade to Sandport Place, and they also support a team of volunteers who help to keep the popular North Edinburgh cycle network clean and safe.

Mel Cairns, Sustrans Fundraising Officer, said: ‘Sustrans aims to help people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment. As a charity, we couldn’t be so active and influential without continued support and donations from the public.

The sponsored bike ride will take in one of the most beautiful sections of the award winning National Cycle Network and will be a challenging and rewarding adventure for the participants, some of whom are novice cyclists.

You can sponsor Ally on-line here: http://www.justgiving.com/AllyTibbitt

Gormley Loves Leith

2010-06-27T18:14:22Z

On Saturday, our We Love Leith guided bike ride set off with a mission - to seek out all of the Antony Gormley "6 Times" sculptures that have recently been installed along the Water of Leith between the Modern Art Gallery and Ocean Terminal. Despite the fact that the sculptures had only been in for a few weeks, it didn't take long for someone to add a red bikini to the Stockbridge one. We were interested to see what else we'd find - and it seemed that lot's of other people had had the same idea as we met lot's of other folk along the river busy Gormley hunting too.

The first one we found was the one at Bonnington. It had been adorned with a bath tub.

We almost cycled straight past the next one, which is in St Marks Park.

Imagine our surprise when we got to Stockbridge to discover one wearing a We Love Leith T-shirt! We had no idea that news of our arrival would be greeted with such a public display of affection from the residents of Stockbridge.

After Stockbridge, we had a bit of a hill climb up to the modern art gallery. Again - the Gormley was wearing a cycle helmet when we got there. How did they know we were coming? Or were they just worried for that particular sculptures safety - given how he's somewhat unfortunately embedded up to his waist in tarmac?

It was back down the hill to the Water of Leith to catch our fifth Gormley. This is the one at Bells Weir.

Then, it we did a big loop back around the north Edinburgh cycle path to bag our sixth and final sculture which is at the end of disused pier in Leith Docks.

Have you been Gormley hunting yet? Which is your favourite one?

Everyone agreed at the end of the ride that 'themed' rides were a good thing - so if you have any ideas for our next ride, then please do let us know in the comments below.

Thanks to Richard Cross for taking these great photos. You can see some more of the ride to the Greener Leith photo pool on Flickr.

Poll results: Leithers want tram to run to Newhaven

2010-06-26T19:11:54Z

Earlier this week the Evening News ran a front page story based on a poll that they'd conducted of registered readers of their website. One can never accuse the Evening News of being modest when it comes to their polling skills. No caveats were given as to how representative a poll of registered Evening News website readers might be, the Evening News simply proclaimed "that the survey was the biggest to date on the scheme."

The results they got said 47.4% of voters said they'd like to scrap the tram project, so we thought that the contrast between those results and the results of our poll that we ran last week might be interesting. If we wanted, we could call our poll the 'biggest independent tram survey of Leithers ever undertaken.' But we won't, we'll just show you the results*:

So, there you have it. By our reckoning that's over 55% of Leithers who want to see the tram line continued to Newhaven - even if the council or the Scottish Government have to spend more than they originally intended on it. Could that be because Leithers have endured so much disruption over the last few years that it seems almost unthinkable that we wouldn't end up with a tram at the end of it?

Some of the comments people added to the poll include the following:

"Get behind the project and stop moaning"

"For goodness sake get on with it. Investment in public transport costs money"

"Company should honour their contract or be sacked"

"Edinburgh councillors should sell their organs to fund the trams"

"I believe a community led review of what's happened is required. This would cover: where we are and how we've got there, which options we now face and which is the best to pursue. This would not be dissimilar to a Truth & Reconciliation Committee..."

The council met earlier this week to discuss the tram project. You can hear the opinions of some Edinburgh bloggers who went to the meeting with the Guardian Edinburgh blogger Tom Allan below. They included former Greener Leith board member, Fay Young.

Listen!

Tom also interviewed the leader of the SNP group on the council, Cllr Steve Cardownie on what he thinks should happen next.

Listen!

*these poll results are based on the votes of 76 people who visited our website in the last week. We don't know anything about them.

Breakfast by the Shore

2010-06-25T11:21:43Z

This morning Greener Leith ran our second commuters breakfast. These events aim to support and encourage more people in the area to start or keep cycling - and we had another great turnout. Jolene Campbell, on Leith FM, interviewed Greener Leith volunteer Neill Hope about the event at about 7.30am this morning. We managed to record most of the interview, so you can listen to it here:

Listen!

We were really lucky to persuade the Police, at the last minute, to come to the event to provide free security marking for passing cyclists. This is really important as cycle theft is on the increase in some parts of Leith. Both police officers were working flat out to get through the numbers of people wanting to get their bikes tagged. A quick tally at the end of the event showed that they got through about 30 people in just two hours. As they'd worked so hard we gave them a huge plate of left over rolls to say thanks.

Given that there is clearly a demand for this service we agreed that we'd try to figure out a way to repeat the offer later in the year.

We should also thank the 'Rolls on wheels" service provided by Out of the Blue, who supplied us with lots of tasty breakfast rolls, and the Edinburgh Cycle Company for providing a mechanic for the day. The most major issue he had to deal with on the day was a bike with handlebars that had been installed the wrong way around! Fortunately, the problem was quickly solved and the owner of this particular bike rode off happily with a functional and safe bike.

Commuters Breakfast - This Friday

2010-06-22T12:38:10Z

Greener Leith is pleased to announce a further Leith event for Bike Week 2010. After the success of our last Commuters Breakfast in April, we've been keen to organise another one for some time.

From 7am-9am on the 25th of June, on the Water of Leith cycle path (underneath the Great Junction Street Bridge), we'll be providing cyclists with:

A chance to get their bike maintained for free, courtesy of the Edinburgh Cycle Company
Discounted cycle security marking courtesy of Lothian and Borders Police
Free continental style breakfast rolls, fruit and juice provided by "Rolls on Wheels," based at Out of the Blue.
Free active travel maps, We Love Leith bike bells and cycle advice.

We've taken account of the feedback you gave us from our last one, so we're going to aim to be ready to go from 7am instead of 7.30am.

And if you can't make it to this event, you're more than welcome to join us on the Saturday on the Gormley Hunt.

Now we understand.

2010-06-19T09:23:41Z

Leithers might be forgiven for wondering why the Tram information sign at the Foot of the Walk has been left lying around in various poses over the last few weeks. Perhaps it's because no-one knows whether it's worth reinstalling it or not.

You can't fail to have missed the recent news stories that suggest we may not see a tram in Leith for some years yet. Take your pick from:

Please tell us what you think should happen next by voting in the poll below.

Bike Week Gormley Hunt

2010-06-17T20:21:19Z

Our next We Love Leith Guided Bike Ride on June 26th happily coincides with Bike Week 2010. For this ride, we thought we'd add a bit of culture into the mix by going on a Gormley Hunt.

Recently, six Antony Gormley (he of Angel of the North Fame) sculptures have been installed along the Water of Leith. Our mission will be simple - to seek all six sculptures out and discover what they're wearing.

It turns out that this ride is almost exactly 10 miles long, and the vast majority of the route is on traffic free paths.We'll aim to stop for lunch at the Modern Art Gallery Cafe and/or picnic in the grounds outside.

As ever, everyone is welcome to attend, although children under 16 should be accompanied by a resposbile adult. A map of the route is shown below. More detail about the event is here and if you'd like more information, please do contact us.

Incidentally, the Bike Week people have sent us a whole load of garish freebies, which we'll be trying to offload on you and your children - you have been warned! There are also loads and loads of other events taking place in and around Edinburgh during Bike Week. You can find them on the Bike Week website.

Gormley Trail Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Fun with Bike Trailers

2010-06-11T12:56:08Z

On the 9th and 10th of June, Greener Leith held a Bike Trailer Workshop for 11 local volunteers recruited from the Greener Leith Social in the marvelous workshop at the Duncan Place Resource Centre. Working incredibly hard, in just six hours we managed to put together 10 simple bike trailers capable of carrying almost anything. Why? Well, in our travel surveys we noticed that lots of Leithers mainly use their car to for leisure and shopping purposes, so we thought we'd do something to demonstrate that you can carry almost anything on a bike with a little imagination - as the short film clip below demonstrates!

Look out for these trailers in the Leith Festival Parade tomorrow. You'll also be able to try one out at our stall at the gala day. We have a couple of spare trailers left over from the workshop. We plan to auction them off to raise funds for Greener Leith, so if you want one - please do keep an eye on this blog for more information.

Nick Lobnitz, inventor of the carry freedom bike trailer, and all round Bike design guru, led the workshop and filled our brains with all sorts of load carrying facts as we worked. He's agreed to write a guest post for the Greener Leith blog that will provide the design and instructions for building the same trailer that we made in our workshop soon. In the meantime, you can listen to an audio interview with him conducted at the end of our workshop below:

Listen!

There are more photos from the course in the Greener Leith photo pool on Flickr.com

Water of Leith Management Plan Consultation

2010-06-04T11:03:02Z

The Water of Leith Conservation Trust are hosting a series of consultation documents on a management plan for the Water of Leith. The plan aims to coordinate the acvtivities of a range of public, voluntary and private organisations around the river so that they're acting for a common purpose.

The scope of the management plan is described like this:

"The plan focuses on management of the river from where it leaves Harperrig Reservoir, to where it enters Leith Docks at the Victoria Swing Bridge. It also considers some aspects of management of Harperrig Reservoir, and the Bavelaw Burn, which is a major tributary of the Water of Leith. Within this area, the main concentration has been on issues associated with the river between Balerno and Leith.

The Water of Leith Action Group identified a number of topics that should be addressed by the management plan: water quality, flow and flood prevention, biodiversity, geodiversity, habitat management and invasive species, access and recreation, planning and development, built heritage, landscape, archaeology, reservoirs, micro hydro, education and interpretation, and community involvement. These are all included in this plan."

We've noted a few things that have been left out of the plan. One, is the issue of siltation of the Water of Leith on the Shore. We know this is of concern to local residents in the area. We'll also be suggesting that measures to encourage more walking and cycling are included in the plan. Given how popular the Water of Leith paths are for these activities it's surprising that they feature very rarely in the plan.

The plan aims to cover the period 2010-2020, so it's important that as many people as possible have their say now. For more info see:

http://www.waterofleith.org.uk/management/