Limited response

I am one such resident – I was never asked and I am totally unaware of when or how this feedback was collected.

Moreover, if folk had known that the pilot scheme would cost £230,000 to implement (how many potholes could be repaired for that?) and would be largely ignored, I doubt they would have been so enthusiastic.

Cllr Orr similarly overstates the “safety” benefits of the scheme. Even the council admits that the number of accidents in the pilot area were so few before the reduction that any changes are not statistically significant.

So now we move to the city-wide consultation which supposedly endorsed the proposal.

The council states that there were “almost” 3,000 responses. That “almost” is quite significant but what is true is that, even if a full 3,000 responded, this compares rather poorly with the 319,025 Edinburgh folk who voted in the referendum.

By my reckoning that’s less than 1 per cent. Moreover, since the announcement of the city-wide scheme, I have met a lot of folk grumbling about the stupidity of it – folk who were totally unaware of the consultation.

Although some arterial routes are still to be at 30mph, several bus routes have been caught up in the new 20mph zones, including Mayfield Road, Grange Road and Melville Drive in my area.

A speed limit is a 24/7 restriction, so even when there is absolutely no-one about, buses and cars will still have to crawl along these major routes at 20mph – aye, that’ll be right!

A recent traffic count outside Sciennes school, where you might expect traffic to observe the 20mph limit, found average speed was in excess of 22mph.

Judith Gillespie

Findhorn Place

Edinburgh