Graffiti blights Princes Street - your views online

Calls have been made to clean up graffiti in Edinburgh which is said to be leaving the city centre in an “absolute mess”.

The problem has escalated in recent weeks, mainly on boarded-up shops from the former Jenners along to the Woollen Mill at the West End.

David Carnegie: You know what makes Edinburgh a mess? Litter, potholes and plastic bollards everywhere.

Anne Harris: Senseless graffiti is everywhere in Edinburgh and now even in Princes Street, which is maybe why finally it’s getting coverage. There needs to be a zero tolerance approach, and perpetrators when caught should have to clean it off.

Graffiti on the boarded-up Edinburgh Woollen Mill in Princes Street

Tim Wight: I totally agree. Petty crime is a blight. It degrades everyone’s quality of life.

Alex Monaghan: I thought we had cameras everywhere. If so, why do vandals have the time to do their thing without being caught?

Paul Inglis: We may have cameras but do we have enough CCTV operators watching the cameras or enough police officers on duty to apprehend offenders?

Callum Alexaner Wright: There is graffiti up on Calton Hill too. There is no sense of care for the place where we live, with litter everywhere. I see some good people go out their way to pick litter up, but we should have a council that cares and has things in place to make the capital of our country look like it’s respected.

Tom MacDonald: It’s the cyclists! In all posts by cyclists they always compare Edinburgh to other European cities where bikes are everywhere (like Amsterdam). So my theory is that because of this obsession with trying to make our cities look like European cities (that are also covered in graffiti), they are doing it. They are already lawless on the roads – that gets boring, so they adopt vandalism as their next hit, with a progression to shoplifting quinoa and Linda McCartney burgers from Tesco. It’s the cyclists, I say...

John Jairo Salazar Arteaga: At least if the graffiti was stunning it would be OK but it's nonsense.

Mo Connolly: Edinburgh has had this problem for ages. I’ve seen multiple tags in Gorgie, Dalry and Tollcross. Now it’s Princes Street there’s an outcry.

Lorraine Blyth: Getting rid of graffiti is surely secondary to emptying the bins and dealing with the vermin. As someone who commutes through the city centre early morning Monday-Friday, I see them daily.

Irene Wilson: There are seriously dirty people everywhere. They drop their food wrappers, nothing goes in the bin –and it’s us who pay council tax who have to pay more for the council to pick it up. Places like McDonald’s are also to blame with their takeaways. The council can't keep throwing our council tax money at keeping Edinburgh clean – it's up to us to use bins or take litter home. The graffiti is even worse and they think it's art – it's a mess.

Warren Burrows: In the recent article which interviewed Cammy Day, he actually spoke a lot of sense, surprisingly, but talk is cheap. It needs strong leadership to do what is required and that is getting rid of those responsible for failing to clear up the mess. One example – look around Register House at the east end of Princes Street. Concrete blocks with poles and no signage. a broken tourist information sign with about four barriers around it and its been like that for at least six months. Every single eyesore in this city comes down to one department – Place Management. Start at the top and clear out that department.

Bingo hall saved

Edinburgh Council’s planning committee has voted to protect a beloved Leith bingo hall after a controversial decision to exclude it from a conservation area was made earlier in the year.

Cathy Buchanan: Well done to local community councils for persuading councillors to save this building. My mum loved going to the bingo at the Cappy. It is one of the few places where woman can go on their own. She made lots of friends there.

Raymond Rose: Has any one actually looked at this nondescript box from the back – it's an eyesore. What is there to conserve? We don't preserve buildings simply because of people’s fond memories. Surely we conserve buildings because of their architectural heritage and aesthetic qualities. I defy anyone to point at that red brick and corrugated sheeting windowless box and say it has architectural merit – and yes I have to look at it every day out of my window

Subscribe

Subscribe at www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/subscriptions