Edinburgh al fresco dining - your views online

Restaurants in the Royal Mile have been ordered to remove their pavement patios ahead of the Festival and told they will not be allowed to put them back

Gaye Bell

Covid rates are rising, but Edinburgh Council wants to force people to sit indoors! Really? Also as others have pointed out, summer is the time when people most enjoy sitting outside.

Sam Dounis

Covid hasn’t disappeared, and why shouldn’t businesses be allowed to make more money? That’s what keeps people in jobs and suppliers in business.

Julie Logan

I was under the impression that council allowed these premises free of charge outside places due to Covid. It wasn't ever permanent and certainly not for them to make even more money. Under normal circumstances premises apply to do this and pay to do so and the council have the right to refuse, especially if it interferes with the gereral public accessing pavement for walking, mothers with buggies and wheelchair users etc. Edinburgh is looking very tatty and not the Athens of the North it once was.

Christine Gilmore

Ridiculous, that’s exactly the time people want to sit outside!

Lesley Anthony

I prefer sitting outside. And with rising Covid cases it is the safest option too.

TC Gladioli

Edinburgh is looking so cheap nowadays! Princes Street only has cheap skate shops, with few exceptions! So sad!

Warren Burrows

Good, they are an eyesore.

John Smith

Great. The streets of Edinburgh look more like a shanty-town these days. Get Waverley Bridge back open again. That was meant to be ‘temporary’ too.

Tony Ward

Our council should first remove their "temporary" outdoor SfP bollards.

Lynne Hainsworth

I think they all look awful. They're really blocking the streets now that there are lots more people about. The company managed with its existing restaurant before, so.

Patrice Reid

I like outdoors eating and drinking, as do the tourists. Let it be, idiots, they need the income it brings!

Peter Kelly

It’s just greed on the part of the restaurant, bet they still pay their staff the minimum wage.

John Hewit

If a street like Cockburn Street is closed to traffic anyway, I really don’t see the problem of having the outside seating areas. The continent has them everywhere. Even Glasgow have put loads on their pedestrianised streets. I think they are great. It gives the place more life.

Andy Flanagan

To be honest, that area is beginning to look shabby, an open air boozer. Not everyone visiting that historic area is doing so for a pint of Tennents and an overpriced pizza.

Keith Ramsay

Makes it a bit fairer for the restaurants that don't have outside patios because they were not allowed to erect them.

William Barker

Was it not to help them stop losing money due to restrictions imposed by Covid guidelines, not a way of boosting income afterwards. Still, seeing seating outdoors has a very European feel.

Wilson Irene

It's a nightmare when festival tourists are here and locals and tourists can't get round without garden furniture everywhere. I love and hate the festival. The worst part of sitting anywhere in town outside is the number of beggars coming up. We were sitting just down before the Castle to see Olly Murrs a few years ago and had a drink outside a cafe and loads of them were harrassing everyone for money.

John Macdonald

Surely the trend of selling off public space to private entities hasn't begun to swing back! Won't that mean the roads can return to being for vehicles rather than pedestrians?

Gary Johnstone

I don't mind these outdoor areas. However, the one at the top of Hanover Street near George Street needs to go. It's on the road taking up a lane and causes congestion.

Neil Hastie

So, with rising Covid numbers and people being told that fresh air and space plays a major role to help to avoid catching it, the ‘clowncil’ are saying everyone should get indoors and be rammed together in an enclosed space. That’s clever, eh!

Kenneth Smith

Get the clutter off our pavements and roads.

Jai Mackenzie

It was temporary, you dont own the street.

Julie Starr

Not exactly spaces for people is it?

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