Edinburgh wins best city title

17:10:20 16th October 2008

The beautiful gardens and clean streets of Scotland's capital have won it the title of Scotland's most beautiful city.

Edinburgh scooped the coveted award from Beautiful Scotland after impressing judges during the Fringe Festival in August.

It is the first time the city has won the award and the city's parks and green space manager David Jamieson explained how much work had gone into making it beautiful.

"The renovation of St Andrew Square Garden has proved highly successful and work we have undertaken to invest in long-term tree health by carrying out a city-wide tree survey is also proving to have a positive impact," he told the Scotsman.

"Other initiatives that gained points for us was the use of the City Car Club and hybrid cars at the council along with the Green Flag scheme that is used to rate the quality of our parks.

"The work of neighbourhood teams has also contributed to street cleanliness and the lack of dog fouling which has made an impact on our scores."

Edinburgh has a plethora of beautiful gardens to inspire budding horticulturalists to get out into their own gardens and greenhouses.

Meanwhile, Lanarkshire town Uddingston scooped the gold award for the most beautiful town in the country.