ABERDEENSHIRE: CALL FOR CASH TOTACKLE ROWDY BEHAVIOUR

CALL FOR CASH TOTACKLE ROWDY BEHAVIOUR

Communities in the north-east are forced to endure high levels of antisocial behaviour because Aberdeenshire Council receives an "extraordinarily low level of funding" to tackle the problem.

The authority would need around £25,000 a week to bring it up to standard with its number of wardens, youth programmes and staff.

Councillors are now being urged to highlight the issue and appeal for more funding to help secure funding for the "diverse" rural communities.

A report to go before the policy and resources committee on Thursday says communities such as Ellon, Kintore and Inverurie have a "disproportionately high level of antisocial behaviour complaints".

Despite this, it says Aberdeenshire Council receives "by far" the lowest Scottish Government funding per head of population of any local authority in the country for community safety and antisocial behaviour measures - but the reasons why are "unclear".

The second lowest is the Highland area, but it receives 50% more than Aberdeenshire, and Argyll and Bute, the third lowest, receives 80% more funding.

The report says if funding was increased to £25,000, which would "simply be average", the local authority would be able to provide community wardens in the seven biggest communities and drug and alcohol misuse initiatives in each of the 17 community schools networks.

In addition, it says more road safety and driver education could be carried out and says there could be funding for more community learning and development programmes "to intercept potential antisocial behaviour at an early stage".

The report highlights some of the major issues the lack of funding creates, such as the predominance of temporary posts which creates "a serious risk of lack of continuity, loss of expertise and morale".

In addition, it says the low level of funding makes it more challenging to "make a real impact across all the areas".

Looking to the benefits the youth initiatives could potentially bring, the report says there has been a "very successful peer education project" in Ellon which has led to "a significant reduction" in levels of vandalism.

In addition, it says the strategies in place across the area to tackle the problems are "showing signs of success" with a downturn in vandalism in north and south Aberdeenshire and a drop of almost 30% in calls relating to under-age drinking.

Councillors meeting at Woodhill House in Aberdeen on Thursday are recommended to highlight the issue and to try to secure "an increased and more equitable level of funding" for community safety and antisocial behaviour.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said last night that community safety issues were a key priority and stressed the current funding levels had been set by the previous administration.

She added a spending review would be held later this year to establish future funding priorities.

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