CUTS to police community funding are being blamed for East Lothian reporting the highest increase in anti-social behaviour in Scotland over the first six months of the financial year.

The latest statistics on crime in the county has revealed that the number of anti-social behaviour reports from the public rose by almost a fifth in the first half of 2016/17 compared to the same period in 2015/16.

It is the biggest rise recorded by any council area in the national police report, with neighbouring Edinburgh and Midlothian reporting a rise of less than one per cent, while 10 of the 32 Scottish local authorities reported a fall in anti-social behaviour reports.

Councillor Stuart Currie, leader of East Lothian Council’s SNP opposition party, pointed to the Labour-led council administration’s decision to cut funding for community police officers from £500,000 to £100,000 in last year’s budget as the reason for the rise.

He said: “It is noticeable that we do not have the same level of high-visibility policing on our streets. We have this downward spiral now and [the administration] need to take responsibility for their actions. The reality is that the figures are related to the policy decision to reduce funding for community policing.”

But Iain Gray (Lab), East Lothian MSP, defended the council, saying it was cuts to local authority funding by the Scottish Government which had left a shortfall.

He said: “In the past, councils such as ours have had to plug the gaps in Government funding for police, but with £327m being cut from their budgets this has just become impossible.”

The Courier reported anti-social behaviour was on the rise last month when the results of the first quarter of the 2016/2017 year, revealed they were up by nearly 20 per cent, and the second quarter report showed no fall in the figures, with a 19 per cent rise over the six months as a whole.

Police Scotland said then that the change to their agreement with the council – which reduced the number of funded officers from 13 to just three, and one anti-social behaviour officer – was a possible reason.

But it said an “anomaly” in the way figures were collected, which made the new figures more accurate, had had an impact on the final statistics.

Following the release of the latest statistics, which show not only that the rise remains but is far above the rest of Scotland, Mr Currie said the council had to reinvest in community policing.

He said: “One set of figures can be dismissed as a blip but not two in a row. The need to reinstate the police funds in the budget is evident and must be done. Anti-social behaviour has a corrosive effect on communities. Cutting the funding was a ludicrous decision.”

The second quarter figures also showed overall crime detection rates in East Lothian lying well below the national average at 45.7 per cent, with a fall to just 25 per cent when it came to housebreaking and attempted break-ins, and a sharp decrease in detections on break-ins to non-domestic properties, eg businesses, from 28 per cent the previous year to just seven per cent in the last six months.

Mr Gray said: “Anyone who deals with our local police officers knows that they do a great job for us. However, there are not enough of them and they are overstretched. Months ago I warned that the Scottish Police Federation had shown that police resources were being drastically cut and also redirected away from the east of Scotland.

“It is hardly surprising, then, to see detection rates for crimes like housebreaking start to fall here.

“As for anti-social behaviour, in my experience this is often cyclical. However, where there have been problems in specific places recently, police action has been taken and I know our officers do take anti-social behaviour seriously.”

Chief Inspector Matt Paden, local area police commander, said: “The Quarter 2 Management Information has reported increases in anti-social behaviour; however, this is partly due to recent improvements in how we capture data and call handling capacity within East Lothian and Police Scotland. That said, following a partnership review, it is believed there have been real increases for the year to date, but not to the extent reported.

“Police Scotland and East Lothian Council are committed to working in partnership to address anti-social behaviour as a priority and the public should be reassured that we are absolutely committed to this. It should also be highlighted that anti-social behaviour incidents remain below the five-year average for East Lothian.”

Top 10 biggest rises in anti-social behaviour reports by councils:

  • East Lothian – 19 per cent
  • Renfrewshire – 14.6 per cent
  • Argyll & Bute – 10.9 per cent
  • Fife – 10 per cent
  • Falkirk – 9 per cent
  • Aberdeenshire – 8 per cent
  • West Lothian – 7.8 per cent
  • East Dunbartonshire – 6.9 per cent
  • West Dunbartonshire – 6.4 per cent
  • Scottish Borders – 5.2 per cent.