Put down the placards, close the petitions, bring out the bunting: the Battle of Roseburn is won. The only part of the pipe dream to expand the Edinburgh tram network that minimised disruption will be ditched because not enough councillors approve.

When the scheme to run a spur from the current single line from Roseburn to Granton along the old railway track bed comes up for a decision next month, it is widely accepted that the campaign to preserve the route as a cycle path and walkway has been successful, to the delight of the Lib Dems and, oddly, the SNP, both of whom backed the opposition.

With the Conservatives objecting on justifiable cost grounds, and the Greens confused if it does not come with a keffiyeh or a trans rights sticker, the issue has come down to straightforward local pork-barrel politics, at which the Lib Dems and SNP are past masters, with parties supportive of tram expansion in principle turning their backs on what is easily the most deliverable element of the entire network.

The Roseburn Path has been clearly marked in the Local Development Plan as protected for a tram route, not wood pigeons and foxes, since it was included in the original legislation 20 years ago. As veteran rail campaigner and former Labour councillor Lawrence Marshall pointed out this week, the path preservation campaign is a relatively new phenomenon, rising in parallel with the militancy of environmental and “active travel” campaigning.

Scotland is holding Edinburgh back - and that has to stop

Edinburgh’s tourist tax risks damaging the city’s world-famous festivals

Debenhams may survive the fire — but at what cost for Edinburgh's Princes........

© Herald Scotland