Public gardens in Edinburgh: Unlock the gates to greatest assets

LAST Saturday, I set foot in St Andrew Square Garden for the first time in my life. So did many others. The place was busy with those braving the biting wind, despite the sunshine, to sit, drink coffee, and feel the real pleasure of finally being able to enjoy what should always have been one of the city's greatest outdoor assets.

Thanks to ancient rules and regulations, the garden has for the last 238 years only been used by those who own properties on the square itself, which given that in the main they are offices and shops, meant it lay empty – a beautiful green space only to be enjoyed by the less privileged from behind the railings.

Opening up this garden to the general public is, I hope, a loosening of Edinburgh's corsetry and the first step in dismantling one of the last bastions of our city's elitism. After all, not everyone, in fact hardly anyone, can afford to buy property in St Andrew Square, George Street or Queen Street and benefit from private gardens. Us riff raff can stay out.

Now, I'm not suggesting that residents who own the private gardens and make good use of them, and ensure their upkeep, should be forced to throw open their gates to all and sundry.

But it would be great if, on a few specific days a year, maybe even once a month, the other private gardens – there are 41 in total in the New Town – were opened so that the public could benefit from their beauty and greenery.

It's an emotive issue. Understandably, those with the keys, and who pay for the right, feel such gardens should be kept under wraps. Sometimes, though, the determination to retain privacy can be taken to ridiculous extremes.

Just last year there was a huge row among keyholders to Merchiston Garden when one of them – the owner of the Corner House nursery – asked for permission to take small groups of young children into the garden for picnics. What a lovely idea. But apparently not for the majority on the committee who voted 32 to 20 against letting the children in. One said the children would "trash the gardens, another said the kids could cause "damage to the undergrowth and to the plants". Yes, four-year-olds can be real horticultural hooligans.

Of course, if private gardens were opened more often to the public, there would have to be rules set down – no disposable barbecues for instance – and there would have to be some kind of supervision, just as there now is in St Andrew Square.

There have been precedents for opening previously private gardens to the public. Princes Street Garden was once private, but as residents moved away and the area became commercial, the argument for opening it became overwhelming.

I've only ever set foot in one other private New Town garden – Queen Street Gardens. It's a beautiful oasis in the heart of the city, and was the perfect place for my wedding snaps (the George Hotel is a keyholder).

As a result, I feel a certain ownership of the place, even without a key, and would love to go back in and relive memories of that day. But the very act of opening the gates to others would surely engender the feeling that these gardens do belong in a sense to everyone in the city, and should be loved and appreciated by all and not just the privileged few.

Turning sour over milk
WEST Lothian Council has managed to turn back time. Indeed it's as though Thatcher the Milk Snatcher never existed. Yes, free milk is back in all 66 of the local authority's primary schools, at least for all pupils in the first three primary years.

It's unlikely they'll experience the joy of finding the milk frozen inside the glass bottle in winter, given that it's delivered in cartons these days, but what a tremendous decision the council has taken.

So what about Edinburgh's children? After all, the Schools Health Promotion and Nutrition Bill launched two years ago gave councils the power to provide food and drink to pupils other than at lunch time, paving the way for the return of school milk.

Indeed, as far back as 1938, there were pleas being made in the City Chambers for free school milk, but it seems that while those who qualify for free school meals quite rightly get a carton a day, anyone else has to pay for it.

It's not a lot – £2.60 for six weeks' worth works out at just over 8.5p per day. But if it can be done in West Lothian, surely Edinburgh kids can drink up too?

Not fairest of them all
I HAVE thought for some time that Jenners is no longer the store it used to be, and this was confirmed at the weekend.

A gilt-framed over-mantle mirror, bought for me years ago by my parents, has been smashed by my son. Quite what happened, I've yet to truly discover . . .

However, for insurance purposes, I needed to get a couple of quotes for a replacement. John Lewis was happy to oblige. Jenners, on the other hand, wanted to charge £10 for the same service.

Apparently, once the insurance money comes through and you purchase a mirror from the store, you get a £10 Jenners voucher, so "you get your money back".

Er, no. A voucher for one store is not the same as £10 I could spend anywhere – and what if I didn't want to buy a Jenners mirror? I'd be £10 out of pocket.

So no more will I enter the portals of Jenners (I'm sure House of Fraser stock will decline sharply). But I'll stick to John Lewis – it's a store where the staff know the meaning of real customer service.