MORE than 6,000 people have signed a petition by an East Lothian business owner asking the Scottish Government to allow garden centres to reopen during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Helen MacDonald, owner of Merryhatton Garden Centre at East Fortune, said that the industry closure was “creating huge losses” for growers.

She said: “Furthermore, there are well-documented physical and mental health benefits from gardening.

“In the current circumstances, it’s more important than ever to facilitate gardening by allowing gardeners to visit garden centres for their essentials, where they can shop safely in wide, open, well-ventilated spaces.”

The Scottish Government has stated that, in this third lockdown, all non-essential retail must remain closed.

While DIY stores such as B&Q and Homebase, which also sell gardening products and equipment, are classed as essential as they sell “products and tools used in building work and repair” and remain open, garden centres and plant nurseries in Scotland were removed from the Level 4 list of essential retailers on Boxing Day.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced in December last year: “Given the severity of the situation we face and the need to limit interactions as much as possible, we intend to define essential retail more narrowly than we have done recently.

“In short, that means homeware stores and garden centres will be classed as non-essential and will therefore require to close, with the exception of click and collect."

Ms MacDonald added: “The closure of garden centres effectively blocks the supply chain, creating huge losses for growers who are having to dump their crops because they cannot get them to market, and leading to huge losses and implications for jobs.

“The impacts of the closure are disproportionately negative when compared to the benefits and relative safety of garden centre retailing.”

The petition can be found at www.change.org/ReopenScottishGardenCentres