SCOTLAND is benefiting from a sharp reduction in reported offences. Crimes dropped 3.2 per cent in the year to the end of March, while the number of murders fell to the lowest figure ever (using modern definitions).

Better still, the detection rate is up, which suggests criticism of Police Scotland is over-egged. If the criminals don’t respect county boundaries then it follows we need an all-Scotland police force to catch them.

But sadly, my constituency office in Haddington has been getting more complaints about anti-social behaviour in East Lothian. The latest county quarterly crime report indicates that anti-social behaviour incidents are up by 20 per cent to 2,910, compared to the same time last year.

Shops in Haddington, for instance, have been plagued by vandalism, theft and – sadly – racial abuse. Of course, we need to put that into context. East Lothian is still one of the safest places in the world to live. And it does not take more than a few Saturday night brawls or a gang of youths out of control to skew the crime figures. Nevertheless, something has gone wrong.

The answer is very clear: East Lothian Council has withdrawn funding for about 10 police officers dedicated to combating anti-social behaviour – meaning fewer bobbies on the county beat. The council has slashed its contribution to Police Scotland locally from £500,000 to only £100,000, providing cash for just three beat officers and one dedicated anti-social behaviour officer where previously there were 13 officers dedicated to targeting anti-social crimes.

To add to the problem, the Labour-Conservative administration on East Lothian Council has reduced its night-time noise abatement and mediation service at weekends. This has resulted in 100 more incidents for the police to deal with.

East Lothian Council will blame the Scottish Government for cutting grants to local authorities. That might sound more convincing if East Lothian hadn’t underspent its budget by £3 million in 2015. Besides, the notional cut to ELC’s budget was actually balanced by extra cash from Scottish Government to fund the integration of health and social care. Not to mention the fact that next year Labour on ELC plans to bring in its first council tax rise in a decade. Given the predictable costs and nuisance resulting from this rise in anti-social behaviour, surely it would have been cheaper for ELC to maintain the police budget rather than make political cuts?