Who's afraid of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods?
Threats to city council staff as conspiracy theories infect debate over active travel plans
The crude graffiti is so left-field it’s simply baffling.
‘W.E.F. Evil Agenda!’ is scrawled over the innocent looking information board about work to create a new cycle and walkway linking Roseburn to the Union Canal.
Even if you get the reference to the World Economic Forum, the international lobbying organisation best known for its annual gathering of power-brokers in the Alpine resort of Davos, it barely helps work out what is going on.
Aren’t the WEF usually closely associated with the big oil companies? Why would they be at all interested in an active travel route in suburban Edinburgh, especially one that wasn’t being carved out of any existing road space? And what, for goodness sake, might be ‘evil’ about a cycle path?
Welcome to the strange world where populist conspiracy theories collide with town planning on the streets of Scotland’s Capital.
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