Recently, the consultation ended for a long-awaited project in Edinburgh. To connect the wonderful railway paths of northern Edinburgh with the Union Canal, this consultation outlined a ‘Roseburn to Union Canal Path Link’. This has been welcomed by many across the city, as part of the efforts to get our active travel infrastructure for bikes and pedestrians in the city up to 21st century standards.
In general, the scheme has been welcomed, and promises a welcome revitalisation of the area, with new greenery and parks to complement the actual bike/pedestrian infrastructure itself. Most local concerns have been addressed in the plans, such as privacy screens for housing near the path on Duff Street. However, debate surrounding this scheme has not ended with the consultation. The first part of the route, connecting the Roseburn path to Sauchiebank Wood, has recently been highlighted as an area of the plan that may need more work.
There have been many opinions and ideas thrown around in recent weeks, so HAGSA wants to outline very clearly the issues being discussed, and the options available to address them. The Council’s planning information for the route is accessible here. Using photos taken in December 2020, we want to walk you through the first part of the route, and then explain why there is opposition to the current plans.
We understand that it may seem odd to only be hearing about Sauchiebank Wood just recently. If this wood is so important, why were most locals not aware of its existence until a few days or weeks ago? We will also explain why it is such a shame that this area has been neglected and the possible solutions to address this.
The Route from Roseburn to Sauchiebank
First, let’s walk through the route, with the Council’s own outline shown below:
Sauchiebank Wood is labelled here as ‘Sauchiebank Hanging Gardens’ on the left. Here is a plain satellite view of the same area as it looks now:
At the top-left, you can see the existing Roseburn path, and the current plan suggests that the new path will be connected to this by Russell Road. The possibility of a bridge over the railway is there, but not prefered. While this would make for a much smoother connection, it is only labelled as ‘Potential future Roseburn crossing’, likely due to the expense of building a footbridge high over this wide tram and railway corridor. Currently, the part of Russell Road running under this corridor looks like this:
This area can often flood during heavy winter rains, and the pavement on the far side of the road is narrow. You can see the near side of the pavement is much wider. Russell Road is currently a rat-run between Gorgie and Murrayfield, with cars speeding past due to the feeling that the area is deserted, and the poorly designed road junctions nearby (more on that below). If a bridge carrying the Roseburn path over the railway won’t be built, then this underpass needs to be made safe for cyclists and pedestrians. Proper street-lights, CCTV, and drainage improvements are a must.
Furthermore, HAGSA believes the southbound lane (nearest the camera in the photo above) should be converted to a two-way cycle lane, and the other lane made into a single lane of signalled traffic. You can see this arrangement already at Viewforth. Near the Union Canal, this is also a radial road which could be a hazardous rat-run, if it weren’t for measures like this signalling. Having the southbound lane act as a two-way cycle lane will make transitioning from the Roseburn to the new path easy, simple, and safe. No-one has to cross any lanes of traffic, and cars can still use Russell Road to move between Gorgie and Murrayfield, just at a much safer speed.
Rounding the corner from Russell Road onto Sauchiebank, the cycle lane and pavement could both curve left, again without crossing any lanes of traffic:
Currently, this northern side of Sauchiebank is full of parked cars. Imagine bikes going up the left-hand lane in this picture, with the parked cars removed:
You can see Sauchiebank Wood on the right. The road’s gradient is not as gentle as the ramp up to the Roseburn path, but the Council’s designs also have cyclists and pedestrians go up this street before turning into the wood. The next part of these designs is where the issues begin.
The blue path shows steps up from Russell Road, which makes sense as a shortcut for those on foot approaching from the south. However, the shared bike and pedestrian route winds its way up through the gradient of the woods, which are high above Russell Road. It then crosses over the Mid-Calder Railway, on a bridge which generally seems well-designed. The issue here is that in order to level the gradient and create this path, almost the entire existing woodland will be felled. Trees of Edinburgh recently highlighted another diagram (albeit from an earlier iteration of these plans) which shows how many trees are due to be felled:
Blue crosses show trees which show signs of disease - it makes sense to fell these. However, the red crosses are healthy trees to be felled, comprising almost the entire existing wood! The route’s exact design was produced by a company called Harrison Stevens. More details can be found on their page about the project, but you can see in the image below that their initial design preserves far more of the existing wood.
This diagram also shows more clearly the community gardens planned to sit within the path’s large meander uphill. Harrison Stevens’ visualisation of these describes them as urban allotments, presumably levelled flat:
What’s the problem?
The key issue here which really needs further emphasising is the importance of the woods’ ecological maturity. The Royal Forestry Society outlines a mature woodland as having several developed layers:
A field layer of grasses, ferns, lichens etc. that cover the ground
A shrub layer of low-growing plants and shrubs
An understorey of low-growing and/or immature trees.
A canopy layer of mature trees (which often take decades to reach this stage)
Deadwood, including standing dead trees and fallen trees on the ground.
Open areas or ‘glades’ where light reaches through the canopy
It's not every day that you find such a “new” area of woodland in Edinburgh, yet Sauchiebank Wood has all of these characteristics. Trees of Edinburgh’s recent blog post (a community organisation run by qualified foresters) explains this in more detail, but essentially, Sauchiebank Wood is not just any patch of trees. ‘Far more advanced than the many 20-year-old 'Millennium Woods' which make up the majority of Edinburgh's woodland pockets, [which] will take decades to develop structural diversity and ecological interest... Sauchiebank Wood has matured over fifty years or more’.
The current plans do include provisions for planting many new trees around this planned ramp up Sauchiebank, and HAGSA wants more tree-planting around Edinburgh. However, ecological maturity is crucial. Once we cut down 50 year old trees, there is no shortcut to getting them back: we have to wait 50 years for any new growth to match that. You remove all the symbiotic links between bacteria, fungi, and tree roots in the soil, all the carpets of moss which take decades to establish, all the insects, lichens… you force everything to start from scratch. If the new trees planted aren’t sufficiently varied - if they’re all identical rowans, for example - then this wider ecosystem may not re-establish itself at all. The more mature the woodland, the more “effective” it is at storing carbon, filtering pollutants from nearby roads, and the more wildlife it supports.
HAGSA is clear that having a new link created between the Roseburn and the Canal is a good thing. We want this active travel route and the preservation of mature woodland - we should be able to have both!
A Walkthrough of Sauchiebank
Let’s walk through Sauchiebank to understand the area better. The whole thing is surrounded by a foreboding fence, though the gate is unlocked and has no signs on it. Below is a photo looking back to the gate and the Sauchiebank road from a few metres in:
You can see there is an initial steep incline inside the fence, but outside, there is a wide space between a building and the fence, which allows for a smooth transition from the road to a more gentle upward incline. Looking to the right…
You can see this area ideal for a steady ramp up to allow the path to climb. Putting the path here, outside the fence, means you wouldn’t even have to touch the woodland. The Council would of course need to talk to the landowner here, but it's a disused strip behind a warehouse: hardly in high demand! If you do need to go into the wood, then after roughly 10-12 metres, the wood’s edge looks like this:
Stepping back into the woods, you can see how the initial incline has decreased. This area is effectively a plateau, with a low concentration of trees. The fenced-off area had initially made some people who went to view these woods a little worried, and it's understandable when you see a sign like this:
Looking across this little plateau area, you can see where the path could easily makes its way up into the wood, from left to right. There is a sign at an admittedly poorly fenced off area, which states:
The sign refers to Japanese Knotwood, an invasive species the Council is rightly taking pains to tackle across the city. You might see stumps of it sprayed with herbicides and dyed around the city in spring. However, unlike Giant Hogweed, this is not a dangerous or toxic plant you should be afraid of - its shoots can be eaten as a delicacy. Of course, this is not an invitation to go plant any or to disturb plants you find, as this could spread it further, but it is simply something the crews making this path will deal with.
The photo below shows how the path could then continue to wind its way up through a clear path in the woods, from left to right in front of the sign:
Here is a wide angle of the area:
Going further into the wood, you can see evidence of the woods’ maturity:
The path highlighted above connects the path all the way to the old railway alignment, the reason why this embankment exists in the first place. The reason this woodland is roughly 50-60 years old is that the railway was removed around that time.
The path is planned to be 4m wide - surely this path could be used, with a minimal loss of trees at its edge. Compared to this area, the middle of the wood looks more like this:
The woods’ renovation will be a welcome development for removing litter which has inexplicably been dumped here:
The path shown above runs south-east, toward the Western Approach Road. You can see where it ends here:
At this point, you would expect the path to curve to the left and ramp up to cross over the Mid-Calder Railway. This is a different path to the one suggested in the plan, but one which would leave the majority of the woodland intact. CCTV and lighting, asked for by local residents, can still be installed. Alternatively, the space behind a warehouse and outside the wood presents another option. The path could gently incline upward along the north-eastern edge of the wood, either just inside or outside the fence, and cross the Mid-Calder line exactly where the bridge appears in the current plans. Again, this would leave most of the existing woodland untouched.
What does this all mean?
Only last week, a document from the Council’s Environmental Protection team noted that “Representations have been received which highlight concerns at the removal of trees adjacent to the West Approach Road.” However, this suggests that the issue with removing trees is more due to increasing traffic noise in the area. Tree removal in the project is ‘subject to review’, and ‘It is understood that the tree removal may be reduced in certain areas and there will be a general approach based upon new woodland planting and management of existing trees and foliage growth’. What HAGSA wants to see is this management of existing trees and foliage together with re-planting where it is needed.
HAGSA wants the preservation of mature woodland and new active travel routes. It appears that we can have both. We recognise the need to make this path fully accessible to all, and this should still be achievable. Likewise, it should be possible to retain the planned community gardens alongside most of this woodland, without one replacing the other. The Council should consider retaining as much of this mature woodland as possible when this plan is implemented. The majority of the Roseburn-Canal link would be unaffected, and the cost would not be significantly changed. If anything, it would be cheaper to fell fewer trees and build a shorter pathway.
If the plans are implemented as they are, then this would still be a net gain for Gorgie and for the city as a whole - but HAGSA wants to highlight a way to do even better, and preserve a uniquely mature patch of Edinburgh woodland. You can’t buy one or grow it overnight, after all!
*****
P.S. - Stop Russell Road being a Rat Run
Russell Road’s ‘deserted’ feel and width encourages drivers to speed. Here, Russell Road is lined with parked cars next to where the planned steps up the embankment would go:
On the satellite view below, you can see where Russell Road continues south and curves south-east. This further shows how wide the lanes are for traffic, and lane-width is directly correlated to traffic speed: narrow roads mean slower cars. This is not a high-speed route like the Western Approach Road, which you can see crossing Russell Road on a viaduct in this image below, left to right. Russell Road encourages cars to drive faster than the dedicated car bypass above with no pavements!
The many bridges and their pillars obstruct crossings, and make them very dangerous for pedestrians. The curve south-east is treated as a curve to be taken at speed, with the road widening dramatically at this corner (this is more apparent from the ground than on satellite). The road to the left, McLeod Street is treated as a smaller side road, even though it is no more a main road than Russell Road.
HAGSA advises a few simple changes to make this area safer and encourage pedestrians to go up Russell Road and access the planned path at Sauchiebank:
Install the two-way cycle route and signalled traffic lane arrangement under the Russell Road railway bridge (as discussed above).
Widen the pavements along Russell Road, limiting parking spaces to a smaller number of dedicated bays with bins, planters, trees, or other street furniture helping to visually narrow the road for drivers.
Change road markings and widths to make the route from McLeod Street to Murieston Crescent an east-west through road. Make Russell Road a north-south side-road joining this through-road, a junction where all vehicles coming south would have to stop. This would ensure Russell Road is not a high-speed rat-run, and make pedestrian crossings far safer. The extra width of the road at this corner could be turned into wider pavements or filled with planters.
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