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Queen’s Baton Relay top level route announced as part of Glasgow 2014

Glasgow 2014 has announced the list of Scotland’s villages, towns and cities which will welcome the Queen’s Baton Relay, the Commonwealth’s Games equivalent of the Olympic Torch.

Edinburgh will be the first stop on the baton’s final journey through Scotland and will pass through the following communities on Saturday 14 June 2014:

  • Riccarton
  • City Centre
  • Meadowbank
  • Leith
  • Portobello
  • Duddingston
  • Newington
  • South Queensferry.

Further street level details and a full programme of local and city wide events will be announced in the coming weeks.

The relay route will reflect the important role of sport by visiting schools, sporting facilities and leisure centres, encouraging communities to get behind Team Scotland, get involved with the Games and using its profile to get more people participating in sport.

We will continue to promote Edinburgh’s role in Glasgow 2014 to residents and specifically to those communities through which the baton will be carried.

The full press release from Glasgow 2014 and the City of Edinburgh Council’s supportive quote will be through the Council’s news centre this morning.

For further information contact:

David Waddell, Senior Events Officer

David.waddell@edinburgh.gov.uk

Tel: 529 4929

Or for Communications issues:

Lesley McPherson, Chief Communications Officer

Lesley.mcpherson@edinburgh.gov.uk

Tel: 0131 529 4030

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Footway and carriageway improvements – Waverley Bridge, Market Street, East Market Street

To complement the recent changes to vehicular access into Waverley Station made by Network Rail, the City of Edinburgh Council is to make major changes to the road and pavement layout on Waverley Bridge and Market Street. These changes will support anincrease in pedestrian and traffic movements, as well asfurther enhancing the public realm and improving connectivity for pedestrians between Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns.

On 26 May the City of Edinburgh Council will begin construction of £1.2m worth of improvements around Waverley Station.

The project is due to be carried out in two stages:

  • Market Street – 26 May to 26 July
  • Waverley Bridge – 8September to 1December

The construction work includes: widening and resurfacing the footways in natural stone paving, installing new raised tables to improve pedestrian crossing points, installing a new zebra crossing, providing a new 10 bay taxi rank on Market Street, creating new loading areas, a new cycle lane, new street lighting, resurfacing the carriageway and reducing street clutter.

These improvement works have been carefully planned to minimise disruption to businesses and associated tourism, with programming purposely avoiding the summer festival period.

At certain stages of the project there will be a need for temporary traffic lights, lane width restriction and parking suspension, however access for pedestrians and deliveries will be maintained at all times and all shops and businesses will be open for business as usual.

We will continue to work with the local residents and businesses throughout the course of the project so that we can minimise disruption and inconvenience to all those affected by the works.

If you require any further information or assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the City Centre and Leith Team on 0131 529 3535 or environment-ccl@edinburgh.gov.uk. Regular updates on the progress of the project will also be available from the CEC website.