Fighting for better pavements on Easter Road

Lib Dem Leith Walk Councillor Jack Caldwell has been pushing for resurfaced pavements on Easter Road.

In Summer 2024, he submitted a four-page report to the Council's Transport and Environment committee outlining the case for immediate funding for the pavements, particularly on the east side of Easter Road.

The report pointed out that “Easter Road is one of Edinburgh’s eight town centres and is the high street of the most densely populated neighbourhood in Scotland. Car ownership is the joint-lowest in the city, but the pavements, particularly on the eastern side, are of incredibly poor quality, flood and pose major challenges to constituents in wheelchairs.”

Councillor Caldwell also pointed out the opportunities that resurfacing could provide Easter Road:

"There may also be a case for pavement extension and street trees at various locations to help reduce speeding traffic at night.

Additionally, despite being a local centre of extremely high footfall and low local car ownership, the Pavement is narrow in a lot of places on the GIS [mapping tool] ‘Pavement Widths’"

Unfortunately, the Council did not approve this request. Councillor Caldwell will continue pursuing this and wants to hear from residents about their experience on Easter Road. Council officers did report that they would consider other programmes to try and get this street surfaced.