
Edinburgh's 12-hour bus lane pilot delayed by a year
Travel patterns
Currently most bus lanes in Edinburgh only operate during peak hours of 07:30 - 09:30 and 16:00 and 18:30 Monday to Friday, with cars able to use them outside of those times.However since the Covid lockdown it has been argued that travel patterns have changed and therefore the restrictions need to cover a larger part of the day.Councillors agreed on a trial on one bus route rather than an immediate roll-out after a consultation found mixed views.Before 2015, many bus lanes across the city operated 07:30-18:30 Monday to Saturday or 24 hours a day.Stephen Jenkinson, City of Edinburgh Council's transport and environment convener, said: "Making public transport more efficient, reliable, and reducing journey times, are key objectives for us."I share the frustration over the delayed rollout of this trial."Officers are working with transport partners to secure the necessary funding and progress experimental traffic orders to deliver improved bus priority infrastructure."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Griddled lobster medallions with green bean and asparagus salad
A large lobster works best for this dish, as it allows you to cut generous medallions through the shell. You can also use the head and legs to make a rich stock, reducing it down to a syrupy liquid to enhance the dressing. While this step is optional, it's a great way to make full use of the lobster shells – either for the dressing or for another dish like a seafood broth. Takes 1 hour 25 if making the stock Overview Prep time 45 mins Cook time 25 mins Serves 2 to 3 Ingredients 1kg cooked lobster or 2 x 500g lobsters 200g asparagus, woody ends removed 150g green beans, trimmed 100ml fish stock (if you're not making your own) a large handful of small salad leaves per person oil, for brushing For the dressing 1 large shallot, finely chopped 1 tbsp cider vinegar 3 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil 2 medium tomatoes, quartered, seeds removed and diced For a quick stock (optional) 1.5 litres fish stock 1 tomato, chopped ½ bulb of garlic ½ tbsp tomato purée about 15 fennel seeds 1 small red onion, peeled, halved and cut into wedges a couple of sprigs of thyme


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Five takeaways from report into fire that shut Heathrow down
A report into a fire at an electricity substation that resulted in Heathrow Airport shutting down for nearly a day, causing chaos for more than 200,000 passengers, has been National Energy System Operator (NESO) identified the likely cause of the fire, and said that National Grid which operates the substation was warned about a fault seven years ago. Here are five key findings from the report. 1. The fire was caused by moisture The NESO report answered one of the key questions – what caused the fire?The device which caught fire was a "supergrid transformer", which takes high voltage electricity from the transmission grid and reduces it to a lower voltage for the next stage of its route to Heathrow Airport and surrounding said the likely cause was moisture getting into the high-voltage "bushing" – insulation around the caused a short-circuit and "arcing" - electric sparks like those in a spark plug - which resulted in a "catastrophic failure".That caused the oil which is used to cool the transformer to catch fire, and took two transformers offline, cutting power to Heathrow. 2. National Grid knew about the problem seven years before the fire The report said signs of moisture were detected at North Hyde in July 2018. National Grid's guidance said these were "an imminent fault" that should be replaced. But the issue wasn't fixed at the 2022, basic maintenance on the transformer was deferred. Multiple further attempts were made to schedule maintenance, but none went ahead. 3. Heathrow knew a problem with one of its three grid connections would close the airport Heathrow uses as much electricity as a small city, and it has three connections to the national grid. But it new that if one of them went down, it would have to close the airport for 10 to 12 hours while key systems were connected to the other sources of did not think it was a likely scenario, so it was not considered worthwhile to spend the money to fix it – which Heathrow has previously said would have cost a billion pounds. NESO said having three connections to the grid meant there were "opportunities" to improve Heathrow's resilience of supply. 4. National Grid didn't know how important the substation was National Grid and the energy supplier SSEN knew that electricity from North Hyde went to Heathrow Airport. But they did not know that Heathrow would have to shut down if that supply was interrupted. Perhaps if they had, they would have taken a different approach to maintenance. Energy suppliers do not currently know if their customers are counted as "critical national infrastructure (CNI)" – sectors such as transport, defence, government or communications. The report calls better communications between CNI operators and their energy suppliers to ensure that supplies do not get interrupted. 5. Heathrow is not happy Heathrow came under a lot of criticism after the fire - including the revelation that the chief executive Thomas Woldbye was asleep in bed when the decision was taken to close the airport. NESO said its report was not written to "apportion blame", but Heathrow says it is now considering legal action against National Grid. In its view the report described "clear and repeated failings" which "could and should" have prevented the fire. It said it expected National Grid to "take responsibility for those failings." National Grid said it had a comprehensive maintenance programme, and would co-operate closely with the Ofgem investigation.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Welsh group make 264 sashes for female MPs to mark women's vote
A team of Welsh seamstresses have made 264 sashes for every woman MP to mark 97 years since women were given the right to group, based in Newport, call themselves Lucy and the Sashmeisters, and the handcrafted white sashes were given to the current women MPs at Westminster Hall on sashes hope to both commemorate the difficulties faced during the suffragette movement, and the significance of the Equal Franchise Act of 1928, which gave women over the age of 21 the right to vote. Organised by Centenary Action, the project is part of the campaign for the equal number of men and women MPs, as currently there are only 40 percent of women MPs in government. Centenary action was established by Dr Helen Pankhurst, the granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst and great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst - two trailblazing women who founded the suffragettes and campaigned for women's right to to the act being passed, only women over the age of 30 who occupied a house, or were married to someone who did, could vote. The group have been crafting the sashes since March, and women of all age ranges and backgrounds helped out, with the youngest aged 15, and then the oldest aged 87. They are white twill sashes, with one purple ribbon down one side and green on the other side, the iconic colours of the British suffragette movement. Each sash is numbered, depending on where each MP comes in the all time list of women MPs. "There have only ever been 694 women MPs, so for all the women it connects them to the past, to the history of suffrage, it connects them to each other," said Dr Pankhurst. "It's a baton that's also being handed over to the next generation of women MPs, to know their number and find ways to support each other and transform Parliament."There are the most women MPs ever at present, which is a milestone worth recognising, said Dr Pankhurst, but she added "celebration alone isn't enough"."We need real, sustained action to ensure we reach a truly gender-equal Parliament by 2028, when we mark the centenary of equal franchise." Spearhead of the project, seamstress Lucy Harris, said: "I'm really proud to be able to do this for them, they work for us and particularly for women, we have a voice now.""Our earliest sash is for Diane Abbott," Ms Harris told BBC Radio Wales said while there aren't 50 percent women MPs yet, the process of making the sashes highlighted the increase of women going up per decade, which she described as "amazing". Nancy Astor was the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons in 1919 and she sat alongside 706 men. Today, there are 386 men. Ms Harris said she was first put in touch with Dr Pankhurst in 2018, when she made 100 suffragette sashes for the march for women in London on International Women's Day. Just before Christmas last year, she said she got an email from Dr Pankhurst asking if she and those at Re:Make, a community repair and reuse space in Newport, would want to do it again. Labour MP Jessica Morden was heavily involved in the project, and helped deliver the sashes to Westminster. Ms Morden said she was "so proud" to see the sashes, and it was "quite the moment" to witness so many women MPs wearing their sashes together. "It is a testament to how far we've come since the Equal Franchise Act of 1928," she added. She described the event as a "fitting tribute" to all the suffragettes who fought and suffered to ensure that all women could have their say in how the country is run."The number 264 represents around 40 percent of the total Members of Parliament," she added. "This shows there is still much work to do to achieve a truly representative Parliament in which 50 percent of MPs are women."She thanked Centenary Action for bringing the project together and the "utterly brilliant" seamstresses at Re:Make for "working so hard to make all of the sashes from scratch".