Issue - meetings

By Councillor Howie - Street Furniture

“Council:

1)         Notes Councillor Miller’s Equal Pavements Pledge motion which was passed during September’s Full Council Meeting.

2)         Recognises the increase in street furniture facilitates the Covid recovery.

3)         Commends the work done by many pubs and restaurants to make their outdoor areas in public spaces disability-friendly.

4)         Notes that the recent applications for pubs and restaurants to place platformed seating areas outside their premises are now increasing and altering so that they become permanent arrangements instead of temporary.

5)         Notes however that issues raised by Guide Dogs for the Blind Scotland regarding the enforcement of the regulations on street furniture indicate there are still issues for the blind in Edinburgh.

6)         Is concerned that many blind and visually impaired people avoid parts of our city, such as Portobello Promenade, because the street furniture regulations are being ignored, leading to excessive, and for them, dangerous, street clutter.

7)         Calls for officers to compile, in consultation with Guide Dogs for the Blind Scotland and other disability groups, a report on the continued impact of street furniture on blind and visually impaired people, the wider disabled community and parents with buggies and how to mitigate it and how this should be aligned with the aforementioned motion.”