Lib Dems oppose trams on Telford / Roseburn Path

Thank you to everyone who wrote to me over the last few days with concerns about the potential use of the Telford/Roseburn path for a future extension of the tram. Below you can read the speech that I gave at yesterday’s Transport Committee. There will now be a 12-week consultation (I’ll share details here and would urge everyone to participate!) but the Roseburn path will no longer be presented as the preferred route. ;

“As my colleague has said, we are open to the extension of the tram network, but not at any cost.

The Roseburn path has been described as a well-being route, a linear park, an important green space loved by many many people in north and west Edinburgh and beyond. It is a nature corridor and a home to wildlife in the heart of our city - an amazing example of a rewilded industrial space. Someone called it a lifeline for city kids - that’s certainly my experience too.

A tram through it will forever alter that.

The path network is honestly one of the best things about living in north Edinburgh. It is now a completely traffic-free connection from Leith and Newhaven to Haymarket and will soon connect to the canal. And as with any network - to lose even just a section of it is to diminish all of it.

It is right that a consultation goes ahead so that everyone has a chance to express their views. But we want to be very clear. This Lib Dem group will not support the tram extension along the Roseburn path.”