​I have already complained about the curse of unnecessary phone boxes, which are really just advertising boards.  So I’ll not harp on about them again. But along with cash machine kiosks and other such stuff, they (mostly) need to go.

​Cycling is on the increase: good. Bikes on the pavement are also on the increase: not good. Keep them on the road please, preferably in well-designed cycle parking. Or if cycle parking must be on the pavement, please put them in suitable nooks and crannies, well away from the desire line of people on foot…

​Overhanging trees and especially protruding hedges are everywhere. It is not uncommon to see the space available to people walking halved by encroaching shrubs. How often do council inspectors knock on a door and draw this to the attention of their owners? Never, I would think…

Rubbish in the street is not nice for anyone, but can also be hazardous. Mattresses and such like are frequently dumped, sometimes blocking the whole footway. To be fair, my council (Edinburgh) usually removes this kind of thing fairly quickly, and it would help if people stopped anti-social fly-tipping. But worse is the rubbish left by the council and its contractors itself: the traffic cones and all the other highways rubbish that seems to perpetually litter our streets - sandbags, barriers, and such like. They are everywhere. And they shouldn’t be.

​Into the top three now; yes these are my top hates at the moment: Roadworks signs on the pavement. They are supposed to comply with the statutory Code, but often don’t. They also often linger long after their original purpose has expired. Special mention must go to “diversion” signs…in my own street, I have seen a sequence of signs reading: “diversion”, “end of diversion” and then, surprise, surprise, “diversion” again. And worst of all are signs mounted in 900kg concrete blocks, taking up half the pavement which seem to be everywhere. Ban them; put temporary signs on lamp posts instead.

​I am known for my dislike of signage poles, I confess. Poles with parking signs, poles with signs directing you (ie motorists) to an amenity…above all, poles with nothing on them whatsoever. Design guidance couldn’t be clearer - signage should be minimised, and where it is needed, it should be mounted on lamp posts, buildings or other infrastructure.  But old habits die hard. We are still sticking new poles everywhere, let alone de-cluttering our streets - every new initiative (safe routes to school, trams, parking zones) brings a new clutch of signs and poles…

And so to Number One. Parking on the pavement is not on. But in Edinburgh, while you are pretty much guaranteed a parking ticket if you overstay your time limit in a controlled parking zone bay, no one seems to take responsibility for vehicles parked on the pavement. Let’s hope the promised  Footway Parking and Double Parking (Scotland) Bill will really put an end to this. ​

Have you ever noticed that there seem to be an awful lot of phone boxes in Edinburgh streets?     (I’m not talking here about traditional red phone boxes, by the way: rather the unlovely, utilitarian payphone). In the age of the ubiquitous mobile phone, do we need so many of these square boxes in our already-cluttered pavements? I first became curious about this phenomenon while trying - successfully, eventually! - to get this redundant phone box removed from Tollcross as a result of a street audit for Living Streets Edinburgh.

Indeed, BT reports that a third of their pay phones have been removed, because most phone boxes lose money; calls from their payphones have fallen by more than 80% in the past ten years. But according to UK payphone.com there are 1,379 in Edinburgh.  In South St Andrews Street, just off Edinburgh’s Princes Street, there are no fewer than seven payphone within the space 40 metres. Is it conceivable that there is ever a demand for all these phones at any one time?

Could this proliferation possibly be connected with BT’s partnership with street furniture and advertising giant JC Decaux? JC Decaux’s “StreetTalk” is a roadside advertising programme aimed particularly at young people which seems to use BT phone boxes as prime advertising sites. JCDecaux’s website boasts that “StreetTalk’s domination of the high street means that campaigns can get right in on the action”. Of course, phone boxes are not the only - or no doubt the worst - culprit cluttering our streets, but there is something objectionable, sneaky even, about a street advertising programme that masquerades as a public service. 

Scottish councils have clear powers under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to remove obstructions from our streets. It would be nice to see councils using these powers more vigorously to reduce phone boxes (and all other useless things which clutter our towns and cities) to make our streets more attractive and easy places for people to use. The latest Ofcom guidance (5) on the subject I could find seems to be ten years old; it is mostly concerned with the process for removing phone boxes (to protect rural communities where a phone box might be a crucial lifeline). Perhaps Ofcom could provide some leadership here too?