Readers' Best Comments

It's a council triple-whammy. Officials are attacking tartan tat shops, planning a schools swap and off to New York.

The council is trying to cut the number of 'tartan tat' shops on the Royal Mile with new rules for its tenants on the street.

There does seem to be an awful lot of them but it is no business of the council to go interfering. There is clearly a lot of demand for these type of shops.

Voldemort, Edinburgh

Wow. The state is now concerned with directly controlling what it deems "appropriate" shops. And yet there's another story regarding a US chain store called Asda being allowed to dominate a retail zone to such an extent it bankrupts stores that have been present in the area for over a hundred years. Market forces people . . . if we allow 100-year-old stores to go bust because of foreign-owned retail giants' pressure we must also allow our own British shops, even if they are souvenir shops, to thrive. They wouldn't thrive if there wasn't a demand.

Death

Good on the council. Despite what some may think, the High Street is NOT just for tourists. There are hundreds of people who live on that street crying out for proper shops.

jamboyoungy

People want tat. Who are we to stop them?

cosmo

The council wants St Joseph's and Broomhouse primaries to swap buildings to reflect pupil numbers.

Seems like a good idea!

Chirpy Council Worker

By the figures stated in this article all the kids could easily fit into Broomhouse Primary so why are they swapping buildings? Why not close the old St Joseph's and teach all the kids in a new modern building?

Thinner Bob 79

It's a religious reason. Anyway, I have one son at nursery and another at St Joseph's and don't see the problem, Broomhouse is bigger, there are less pupils there, switch them round.

hibbywul

Simpler, just merge and have one local school. 1 admin team and 1 headteacher.

Pond Hall

If the dining hall is shared, then why can't the computer suite be shared as well? For once, this actually sounds like a logical idea .

Diana, Edinburgh

Support for the council there. Surprisingly, not so much for a planned council jaunt to New York to meet a yacht racing crew.

How about spending ten big ones on fixing the roads here first?

eDUCATIon

If the justification for this trip is to "boost tourism and business links", then it should be paid for by private sponsorship alone.

Sarah B

How about this? Any time a group like this want to go off and spend OUR money, firstly they do a presentation to a group of council tax-payers? After their presentation, we vote on the merits and if we see a benefit to Edinburgh we approve it and let them go. However if we don't see any merit or worth in it then they must OUT OF THEIR OWN pockets pay back to us the sum of money they were wanting to spend.

joescoredfour