Safe Promenade

A safe walkway past the Harbour (2022 Summer Trial)

FHSA are conducting a trial - supported by ELC - of a continuous, safe walkway across Fisherrow Harbour. The altered layout will use spaces left by boats which are craned into the harbour over summer. The route (green line) will be separated from vehicles by wooden planters (red lines).

This trial will run from July 2022 til October 2022 when the boats are craned back out of the Harbour.

If successful, the summer harbour layout may become a regular feature, but we need to know what you think.

Please send us your feedback: safeprom@fhsa.org.uk

East Promenade (2021)

Over recent months, Trustees of Fisherrow Harbour and Seafront Association have witnessed and have been told about a number of incidents and near misses in the areas around the Harbour and on the Promenade. This is an area where pedestrians have had to walk in the same areas as general traffic. Also, with no specific markings for vehicles in some of the areas, this has led to the Harbour and Seafront evolving into a mass carpark, reducing the fundamental appeal of the area. Unsafe reversing and cases of vehicles speeding past pedestrians of all ages, especially on the Promenade was an issue.

FHSA Trustees supported requests for a safe route for pedestrians, to move from the West of the Harbour to the East. After much discussion and consultation with traffic engineers, the sketch on the map below was published in Sprint 2021, showing an area in green that we believe general traffic should be restricted from.

The objective of the proposed layout is to achieve a safe and open area where people can enjoy the Harbour and Seafront.

The only exceptions likely to be made for access to the safe area are for users of the Harbour, for example to launch boats in strict compliance with Harbour Rules, Council service vehicles and Emergency Services.

Trial Period

Using temporary barriers, a trial was conducted in February and March. Notices were placed on the barriers, this web page was published and posts were published on social media to advise the public about the trial and ask for feedback. An in-person consultation was also conducted by Trustees and FHSA members on the weekend of Saturday 20th March.

The public were asked to send comments and feedback by email . All feedback was collated and the vast majority of respondents supported the proposal. Some local residents raised concerns about displaced parking. This will be monitored and FHSA Trustees are in touch with the Musselburgh Area Partnership and East Lothian Council for support on this point, but in itself is not felt to be a reason not to proceed with the proposed plans to achieve the benefits mentioned. A minority or local residents protested about the changes.

Next Steps

With consideration being given to feedback during the trial, wooden planters have been placed on the Promenade as a first phase and some space for allocated parking space has been kept in this area. This will be monitored as a concern is that parking spaces will still attract traffic and congestion along the Promenade. Signage may be needed to make it clear that space is more limited.

Once the boats are back in the Harbour, the next step is to complete the area to the South of the Harbour, terminating at the Height barrier to the West of the Harbour for now. Realistically with funds we have available, that's all achievable in the next months. This does complete a safe walkway from the West to the East of the Harbour.

Further investment will be needed to change the road layout to the West of the Harbour and it may be that we need to wait for further investment to complete this phase.

FHSA Trustees
06 Apr 2021

Frequently Asked Questions

I am a local resident to the harbour area, why was I not consulted?

We did consider writing to the residents who live adjacent to the area. However, we felt that everyone who uses the area should be given a voice. We therefore laid out the first part of the scheme with notices to allow anyone with a view to make comment by sending an email.

Who is behind the erection of the barriers? What authority do you have?

Trustees of FHSA arranged for the barriers to be supplied by East Lothian Council and, along with with volunteers we laid out the barriers on Friday 29th January.

FHSA Trustees have a Management Agreement with East Lothian Council. The Management Agreement is published here and it covers the area on the map shown on the same page on our web site.

Is there emergency access to the Harbour area?

The orange barriers could easily be moved by emergency services. The final solution will have gates using standard padlocks that Council service vehicles and emergency vehicles have the key to. Precedent does exist, in that there is a height barrier on the West of the harbour and bollards already restrict traffic to the Harbour piers so this proposal is just an extension of that.

It’s a little confusing at the moment in terms of which way to go, will there be clear signage to help with this?

We definitely need to improve signage and road markings but want to see how everyone uses the layout before we start painting lines everywhere on the Prom.

Disabled parking spaces have been blocked off, will these be reinstated?

We aim to maintain the overall number of disabled spaces in the Harbour area.

Will you provide spaces specifically for visitors?

We don't intend to. Enforcing this would be difficult.

The boats are craned out of the harbour every October until around April. This takes up considerable space. Will this be reviewed?

Operation of boats is activity that Trustees continually review but we don't anticipate any changes as part of this trial. Our community of Fisherrow is built around the centrepiece that is our historic Harbour. While activity has moved from cargo, to fishing and now predominantly to leisure, our aim is to protect the ability for local folk to get onto the water through the Harbour that is a Common Good asset, noting that costs are modest compared to commercial marinas. Boats need space to operate, be maintained and laid up safely to meet increasingly demanding insurance restrictions. It's a delicate balance, maintaining an active harbour alongside a number of other user groups in the area and one that we continually work on. While we don't want it to become a complete boatyard, a harbour with no boats would have little appeal.

What consideration has been given to parking for residents?

January was a mix of typical winter days, but also some sunny weekend days when we saw numbers at the Harbour that would only typically be seen on a summer's day. Trustees kept a count of the number of cars and, on all but one occasion, there was enough space in the surrounding area to accommodate cars parked in the spaces affected by the trial layout. January of course is not a typical month so we will continue to monitor parking. It should be noted that in January, during full COVID lockdown on most evenings, i.e. when most residents would have been at home with the exception of key workers and when visitors and day parkers had left, there were an abundance of available parking spaces. The challenge is therefore to try to reduce use of the Harbour as a mass car park, as a free park and ride to Edinburgh, and also encourage visitors to the area to arrive by alternative forms of transport. FHSA aim to promote active travel with East Lothian Council and will do everything possible to encourage visitors to arrive on foot, by bicycle, or on public transport to try to minimise parking and environmental impacts. There will undoubtedly be busy days when visiting cars fill spaces and residents may not be able to park in an ideal spot. The Trustees understand that this will not be popular with some residents on those occasional days but we have to balance this with what we believe are significant advantages from a new layout for the many users of the area, meeting the aims of our Association that we have agreed with stakeholder groups and East Lothian Council.

Has there been consideration to marking out a cycle lane along the Prom?

Yes, this has been discussed but not pursued on the advice that cycle lanes encourage cyclists to go faster. The risk is then that children and dogs stray across the white line into the path of a bike that is travelling much faster than it would if the area was mixed use. We think the Prom is suitable for 'leisurely cycling', e.g. families with children, but would encourage cycling clubs and anyone trying to beat a Strava time to continue to use New Street and voice support for investment in the Active Travel Network.

What will the final plan be for the Harbour Area and how will this be implemented? (Using what materials), who will fund this?

We need to consider how any development will integrate with other projects, in particular the Musselburgh Flood Protection Scheme. Until then any evolution of the layout will be done using the most cost efficient equipment and materials available. The main points we are thinking about are:

  • A Safe Area: At this stage we still believe that the green area should be a safe area with no traffic.

  • Different Barriers: Replacement of the orange barriers is a priority and we have started to install wooden planters that can be adopted by locals. ELC had the Orange barriers in stock, so was a good first step. The barriers also don't have gaps and while this has been suggested as a benefit, to stop children running among cars, it can also creates a squeeze for pedestrians during busy periods and we can't have this during COVID times. Even in normal times, a continual barrier prevents a free flow of pedestrians around the area.

  • Funding: FHSA is set up as a charitable organisation so, while we can apply for funding, we will also look to Council and Government as appropriate for resources and funding.

How will you publicise?

Updates will be published:

*Note: you don't need to be on Facebook or Twitter to use these links.

I saw in the Courier that ELC are proposing to charge for car parking. Is this going to happen?

FHSA Trustees have not been consulted on this and we're unaware of any plans to introduce any charges for parking. We did do a trial scheme last year to charge for overnight campers, to try to manage numbers and bring campers in line with policies for visiting boats, but we consider overnight camping to be a different topic to short-stay daytime visitor parking.

It would be good if there was a clear area or gap in the barriers for cycling access between the Promenade and New Street .

This has been resolved by laying down the Orange barriers and dividing them into stacks that simulate the intended position for more planters. Cyclists and pedestrians can now pass through at any point.

Last updated: 06 Apr 2021 18:49