News on Spaces for People - East Renfrewshire

Welcome to the final Commonplace news update from the Sustrans team (you may see future updates from East Renfrewshire Council). This week, we are sharing the final data from the Heatmap, and outlining what the next steps will be for the Spaces for People project in East Renfrewshire.

Last week, we shared the results for East Renfrewshire as a whole. There were some differences in the issues and solutions suggested across different areas however, and these can be seen below.

Covering Neilston, Barrhead and Uplawmoor, this image summarises the key issues and solutions proposed on the Heatmap. Narrow footways appear to be of particular concern here, with many suggestions that extending pavements would be useful. The perception of safety is almost identical across both areas, with a majority having a poor opinion of safety.

Comparatively, vehicle speed and quantity of traffic is of larger concern in Newton Mearns, Giffnock, Clarkston and Eaglesham. Narrow footways were identified here too though, and in both areas there is a clear desire for measures that will help to reduce the speed of traffic. This may go hand in hand with reallocating space for safer, physically distanced walking, wheeling and cycling.

Thanks to your help over the last few weeks, East Renfrewshire Council now have a large amount of data to work with. This has been collected via the Commonplace site, the “Suggest a Route” mapping tool and additional engagement on ‘neighbourhood zones’ that has been undertaken. All of this information will be considered in line with the Transport Response to COVID-19 in order to inform where both temporary and more permanent measures should be installed.

There has been considerable interest from schools who are keen to make the school run as smooth and safe as possible for pupils and parents. Parking restrictions are being considered, which has been raised frequently via Commonplace, and was a key theme in conversations held with the school communities.

East Renfrewshire Council have been awarded an additional £1million of funding to help deliver this work in the coming months.

The response to all of the engagement tools over the last couple of months has been fantastic; thank you to each and every one of you who contributed to this project. This has been a time of unprecedented change and considerable uncertainty, so we really do appreciate you taking the time to share your experiences with us.