Jedburgh High Street is voted one of best in Britain

The thoroughfare was shortlisted for the title of Scotland’s most beautiful high street by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful and national agency Scotland’s Towns Partnership.

Central belt towns Cupar, Denny and Lintlithgow and Aberdeenshire’s Turriff and Inverurie completed the shortlist of six.

Turriff came out on top, and Jedburgh’s 8% share of the votes saw the town placed sixth.

Its competition entry states: “Jedburgh is undergoing a lot of structural work at present in connection with the regeneration project, and therefore there is scaffolding which has generated unwanted one way systems, but the High Street still remains the most beautiful one, in our eyes.

“If you go beyond these blots in the landscape, we have a High Street that teams the old with the new.

“The Jedburgh of today, retains largely the same street plan as it had centuries ago; the High Street and Castlegate crossed by Exchange Street and Canongate, with closes running off, similar in style to the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in, obviously, smaller scale.

“The traders are resilient and new shops are opening, the High Street is still used for all major events, flowers are still displayed and we are a very inclusive and positive community.

“We strongly believe that we deserve to win because, by being resilient, we show that we can live with scaffolding and improvement work around us –life goes on.”

Jedburgh Community Council chairman Rory Stewart commended those involved, saying: “It was the amount of work that hasgone in by members of the public, not least the horticultural society.

“They have put in aa massive amount of work over the last two or three years to get in to the position we are in now. John Laidlaw and Sons’ contribution in supporting the work, the Jed Shed and the shop keeps who habe kepy the hanging baskets outside their shops looking good, have all played their part.

“A massive thank you has to go to all of those groups and to everybody else who cared about what happens in the town - this placing has only happened because of their input.”

Judging criteria took a broad understanding of the word “beautiful”, and entries were considered on factors including horticultural achievement, public realm, environmental responsibility, community participation, and access and inclusivity.

Pete Leonard, operations director at Keep Scotland Beautiful, commented: “The standard was particularly high this year and we are delighted to see so many communities actively taking a role in looking after the places where they live and work.

“We know that good quality environments have many benefits – not only for businesses but our health and wellbeing too. By working together, we can all enjoy cleaner, greener and more sustainable spaces.”