MORE than 15 anti-social behaviour incidents a day are reported to police in East Lothian, a councillor has claimed.

The number of reported incidents in the county rose for the second year in a row, with 4,247 complaints recorded by police between April 1 and December 31 last year, police figures show.

Councillor Lachlan Bruce (Con) highlighted the figures this week as he called for more to be done to tackle the problem he described as “a blight on society”.

It comes after East Lothian previously reported the highest rise in the crime – which can range from noise to vandalism and littering – in Scotland during the same period in 2016, when it went up by a staggering 19 per cent.

At the time, East Lothian MSP Iain Gray blamed the Scottish Government for cutting local authority funding, leading to East Lothian Council cutting the amount it paid Police Scotland from £500,000 to just £100,000 in its budget.

However, SNP councillors insisted it was a policy decision by the council’s Labour administration to cut the amount invested in community funding.

Police Scotland also put part of the reason for the sharp increase in 2016 down to a change in the way they gathered information, which they said had an impact.

However, the latest statistics show that anti-social behaviour has continued to increase in the county with a further rise of four per cent.

Mr Bruce said he believed the number of incidents, which average out at 15 a day, were only the tip of the iceberg, with many never reported to the police.

He said: “Anti-social behaviour is a blight on society; for those that have to put up with it on a regular basis it can be soul and life-destroying.

“I believe that to battle anti-social behaviour of course includes social and community work but it also needs a strong local community police presence, which means having more officers on the ground in communities – this should be a priority.”

Mr Bruce revealed that the statistics from Police Scotland showed the number of incidents had risen by four per cent in East Lothian during the second half of last year, compared to the same period in 2016.

In neighbouring Midlothian the number of incidents remained largely the same with only a slight difference, while Edinburgh saw a rise of eight per cent, higher than the Scottish average of seven per cent.

East Lothian Council, however, said indications from its anti-social behaviour team were that their figures showed a fall in the number of reported incidents.

A spokesperson said: “Our own data recorded by the Safer Communities team shows a decrease in reported anti-social behaviour incidents so we are unable to comment on the difference in Police Scotland’s data.”

New figures for the year are expected to be released by Police Scotland at the start of June.

Councillor Stuart Currie (SNP), who criticised the decision to reduce funding for community policing, said it was time the council had a “grown-up discussion” about where money needed to be invested.

He said: “There is clearly a link between funding and the number of incidents being reported.

“It needs to be reviewed and we would support a grown-up discussion about which services need more support.”