John Gibson: So, let us pray for George St

Suits you, sirs? No it doesn’t. Slaters, the George Street oufitters, feel like slagging off those, specifically Edinburgh City Council, who favour the introduction of charging for Sunday parking on this treasured thoroughfare, up till now free on the Sabbath.

Fuming general manager Peter Chesney’s saying: “I was at the latest meeting of the George Street Association and we were unhappy about the mooted parking charges.

“Traders are finding it tough enough as it is without this rumoured additional imposition. Traders apart, worshippers across the road at St Andrews and St George’s West, many elderly, wouldn’t get their cars at the kirk. Pray it doesn’t happen.”

Chesney, pictured above, 11 years GM at 100 George Street, adds: “When you see me tieless in an open-neck shirt you’ll know I’m seething. I’m praying already.”

Says supremo Paul Slater: “We have 23 shops in the UK, one in Edinburgh. They all have enlightened councils except this city. Do they want to kill retail trade in the inner city? When will councils realise that the life blood of any city centre is people? If they are saddled with Sunday parking tickets in George Street they’ll go elsewhere.”

Bye bye Billy

You can’t beat this for loyalty. They’ve already had a slap-up dinner for Billy Garioch, concierge and an institution at the Caley Hotel. But they’ll say cheerio to him on Monday, his “very last” day. He was a page boy at 16 (64 now) at the Caley and his wife-to-be Helen was a chambermaid. Her mother and her granny worked in the canteen. Where would the Caley have been without this loyalist clan, I ask you?