Is there no-where left in Scottish society that's safe from the scum of the earth.

Council chambers aparently

I was in Edinburgh last week, taking in some of the Festival shows and was disgusted to see the sight of drunks lounging about on the benches between St James Centre and the East end of Princes Street. What a vile sight for anyone to see, never mind tourists! Why don't the police and/or council move the smelly, drunken scum on from such public places! It made me ashamed to admit that I'm originally from Edinburgh!

Seems not. This is a definite case where the police should be involved.

We shouldnt tolerate garbage behaviour like this. Makes me ashamed.

when you have a non existent ,permissive policing and justice system this is whats going to happen. The PC brigade are ruining our country, but thats ok keep voting them in.

Everybody's got to be somewhere. Merely moving on "vagrant-type people" from place to place doesn't address the problem.

Of course, it can't be any coinicidence that the Sailors' Ark in New Street also closed two months ago.

With that now shut, where else did the council expect the drinkers to go?

Take away their main meeting point, and of course they will go elsewhere.

Alex will be disappointed,You know he liked his vague rants,Where will he go now.

Police won't touch parasites on social security. Our PC policing and criminal injustice system will use taxpayers money for unlimited legal fees to keep them out of court/prison. On the other hand, arrest a hard-working taxpayer for some heinous parking violation and the taxpayer gets zero legal aid and has to pay fine/plead guilty unless he fancies spending £25K of hard earned money on lawyers. Yes, go for the taxpayer every time and it's another successul prosecution to boost the crime stats.

Don't just whinge about this problem here, get emailing your local councillors and complain to them about. Better still, pay them a visit in person to voice your concerns. The more people who make their voices heard, the more chance the council will take action. Until then, they'll be quite happy to bury their heads in the sand and pretend the problem doesn't exist.

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Council/Council_Busi...

What a country, crime pays you money...being rude pays you social allowance...mugging pays you front line...

This is a great shame. Could the manufactuers of Special Brew, White Lightning, Buckfast and all the other manufactuers of cheap, strong booze not get together and sponsor a little open air drinking den for what must be some of their best customers. I'm sure it would hardly make a dent in the marketing budgets of the big brewers. Suspect not as although they like to sponsor T in the Park, the Fringe etc they would not want to be associated in any way with the real problems caused by their products.

*5 is correct. You reap what you sow.

p.s is that a bottle of Buckie in the picture? I wonder what number it is.

awww man! whir am I gonna drink ma buckfast noo? Canny be jiggered goan tae the meadows..

I take it it's impossible for the police to go down in the morning to turf out the jakies and then come back again at lunchtime to make sure they're still gone and then lock the gate some time in the evening?
Seems to be giving far too much power to these alcoholic losers.

Why not just have a park and a shelter built purely for them? That way they can enjoy themselves, they've got somewhere to warm and dry to sleep and they're not bothering anyone!

Surely the council and their millions could afford a few hundred grand to do this?

Or....... draft them all into the army!

Finding a cop to move the jakeys on is a problem in itself!!!

They're like starlings:)

We should stop tolerating these selfish individuals and kick the PC brigade apologists out the water.

Like somebody said get in touch with councillors or form a vigilanti group or something!

A police spokesman said: "Since the start of the month we have had four calls regarding people either starting small fires in the garden or regarding vagrant-type people hanging about there."

But we're too busy to do anything about, don't you know the festival is on and we need 30 odd officers in The Royal Mile to protect the valuable tourist?

Right guys, it stops here and now! Tomorrow lunchtime, 12:30 at the gates, bring your tool of choice.

Who's in?

Turn it over to them and have the Homeless Hostel next door police it . It keeps them off the streets.

Why does everyone assume these folk are vagrants?
They may just be ordinary members of the public who fancy a refreshing drink of tonic wine on a summer day.

.. there but for the grace ... there's no final solution to this problem .. unless we're prepared to abandon what is best in mankind.

Hope they are prepared to pay back the public funding they have recieved if they lock it up again.

What did you all expect to find in a wildlife garden?? I'm with #19. Give them an Arts council grant and stick them on the list of must see in Edinburgh. How about setting up an elevated viewing platform where tourists could watch their antics and feed them crisps and drink.

way past time to act against this filth and degenerate scum, time to FORCE them to clean up and get a job, the population of those opting out is increasing, they will soon have leaders and an underclass with power will develop. they will bring down a country.

The police have to be FORCED to enforce the law.

I reported out of interest a drunk vagrent urinating in the street. I was told not an issue for response. I then asked for an incident number to show it had been reported but I was left with no doubt that NO such number would be issued WHY ..................... coz if we all did it then the numbers of crimes and univestigated incidents woould show how badly our country is. Tax payers need to pay for more police,

It's a waste of time trying to help them any other way bar giving them somewhere they can go to get plastered and shout at each other.

what ,no1..where can they go2drink there homeless...yip getting worse this is no mountian its a mole hill edinburgh will always have homeless.

32 it is a growing problem, remember they have nothing to loose in illegal acts only a warm bed free food ans a shower ................

SNP/Lib Councillors closed the Ark despite local residents and churches pleas...

Now Scottish Wildlife Trust are forced to restrict access to this wee piece of green in a city filling up with glass and cheap cladding.

The 'Keep them off the streets' trolls, should wake up and smell the coffee - from the comfort of their warm beds and cosy homes.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction - roll on the first City of Edinburgh byelection and take cover Dawes, Cardownie and Co!

Jimmy Wygge so what is YOUR answer???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

the police should get their backsides kicked and take the keys for their cars away at the same time.

#36 Toast and all

Sorry to have to tell you all this, but the polis can't just lock up drunks any more. No chucking them in the drunk tank until they sober up in the morning. EVERY drunk, whether it's an old jakey or a p****d 15 year old has to go to hospital before they can be deemed to be just drunk and fit to lock up. A cop isn't allowed to decide anyone is drunk. The cops must sit with them (for how long? everyone knows the wait at A&E) until they can seen by a doctor then be stuck in a cell to sober up. And you all wonder why the polis do sod all about it and you wait hours at the ERI?

Hey you just have to build designated drinking areas for these folks. Some of the greatest creators of micro-brewed beers here started off as public drinkers. Give them a chance.

Scum of the earth?

We have a world of warmongers, murderers, rapists, dictators, child abusers etc but a bunch of drunk jakeys are the scum of the earth?

Hey, those street drinkers will steal or demand a £1 a time off of you.

Those 'city slickers' will rob you of your pension.

Freedom to associate I think they call it. Sure, if they commit crimes lock them up. Ban public drinking, but the law should view these people as equals.

'glug' GOD ALMIGHTY! 'glug' its me in the picture!, better find 'glug' another spot to go to, 'glug'

#42 Jalapeno,

Just curious but how do these street drinkers go about stealing a pound off you?

#44 they beg aggressively from time to time.

If you are passing through a secluded spot, sometimes it's easier to give them money to placate them.

A bit like door to door or pub charity workers. Agressive begging, it's the same as stealing.

OK be Mr Sensible for a MO!
This article is about 'People' people who at one time of their life's maybe, were highly respected and through a 'life's-bad-hand' made them this way, the older ones have a lot to say, when a little sobered-up-time, at the Haymarket is a favourite spot for them aswell, I just take it as part of life, when I see them with the cider and it don't bother me!
Yes they may try 'scrounge-a-pound' but they are not 'rapists' or 'child-molesters' they would never harm a child unlike the real weirdo's who may frequent the park mentioned!
In-fact through a job I was doing a while back, some of these Sooo called 'scum' are just unfortunate to end up this way, one off the wino's used to be a highly regarded RAF officer!
I know how you all feel in the posts, but even a whisper of empathy, keeps us humane.
If you want 'gassing' as in world war 2, Hitler thought the same, 'these-people-are-the-scum-off-the-earth'
And now you aint, any better than Hitler!

What they complaining about. The notice board reads 'Scottish Wildlife' trust.

Why should wolves, deer, eagles, pigeons, rats, ferrel cats and dogs have their own game reserve.

Stop discriminating against us we are a threatened minority, ethnic group. We have rights you know.

The Johnston Terrace Wildlife Garden, which lies in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, has been turned into a no-go zone for tourists and residents by a gang of street drinkers, who have been setting fires in the garden and using it as a toilet.

I'll go where I like and no sodding bunch of drunk tramps will stop me.

I'm with #29.

What a great idea!!!

I agree with ECTO, London. They should give them some sort of hostel accommodation, and get them to clean up their act. Give them jobs, e.g. keeping the streets of Edinburgh clean, window cleaning, dish washing for cafes, etc. Anything to make them feel proud to live in such a beautiful city.

This is BS!!!--this is a simple quality of life problem.
The NYPD took a care of this Problem yrs ago in NYC---just have a few buses ready at the garden one morning & haul their butts too "Detox"---better know as "JAIL"!
Let them spent 90 days in jail detoxing---if they are found in the park again--180 days in jail--so on & so fourth--soon they will get the message 'MOVE ON"

As a goodwill gesture Carlsberg etc could sponsor a permanent "Gargletent" to cater for these numpties.

Boston, Massachusetts is having the same problem in the oldest public park in the nation. There has always been an 11pm curfew for the place but it is only recently being enforced because a stray bullet went through the wall of the State House, which is adjacent to the park.
The police have foot patrols who walk through and clear it out, arresting if they have to.
This action is taken routinely as a reaction to violence in the park, like a rape, or spate of muggins, or a bullet!
The drinkers and drug addicts who shoot up in there move on, for a while anyway.

A lot have missed the point - our criminal justice system is now so weak, innefective and politically correct that there's no chance of arresting or locking them up. Even a convicted murderer in the UK doing a LIFE sentence ( yes LIFE ! ) will serve only 10 years on average. In Scotland only 3.7% of reported rapes end in conviction.
By the way, the lowlifes infesting our streets are nothing to do with lack of work - 9,000 poles have arrived in Edinburgh in last 2 years, many barely able to speak a word of English and they've all found jobs and homes.
I also suspect that the proximity of the needle exchange to the park has something to do with it, just 4 minutes walk. We look after our junkies here in Edinburgh, we've put the needle exchange just 30 metres from the big Social Security office - it's a one-stop shop for scum.