A 'MULTI-AGENCY approach' is ongoing to combat anti-social behaviour in Peeblesshire.

Peebles Community Council, local police officers, the Community Sports Hub and Tweeddale Youth Action are all playing their part to reduce incidents.

And the general belief is that speaking to the young people in the community is a priority.

Malcolm Bruce, from the community council, has organised a survey for youngsters to complete in school time.

He recently appeared on ITV Border and said: “I represent the community council and it’s a subject we talk about every month at our meetings. The conclusion we’ve come it is that we are not going to get to the bottom of this till we talk to the people themselves, the kids who are getting involved in this and that’s where we are putting our effort at the moment.

“We have secured the assistance of the local high school who are going to work with us on this, maybe through focus groups and with a little bit of talk perhaps we can find a solution.”

Sergeant David Rourke said: “I don’t have all the answers and I’ll not pretend that I do. I wish I did, but I certainly believe what we need to do is engage the children and youths of the communities a lot better.

“So what we’ve been trying to do is work in partnership with the high schools, the community council in Peebles and various other organisations such as Youth Action Teams to address and divert the youth’s attentions from vandalisms such as what has happened in the play park to more productive activities around the region.

“Generally when we have vandalism or any sort of crime we have feedback such as ‘where were the police’ or ‘what are the police doing to resolve this?’

“The police cannot resolve this on their own. Resourcing levels as we know across the board in the UK as a whole means we cant have police officers on every street corner every minute of the day to prevent crime happening so what we need to do is work as communities to spot it happening in the first place.”

A number of groups in the area have also stepped up to help.

Lori Lee from the Community Sports Hub said: “We’ve been working hard to try and get sport back up on the table and that’s something during COVID we have been unable to do. So the opportunity hasn’t been there for young people to get out and be active in sport and potentially this is a reason behind anti-social behaviour.”

And Dave Hodson from Tweeddale Youth Action added: “Through our youth clubs in Peebles and Innerleithen we continue to offer activities and opportunities for young people to have fun. We offer a place where young people can access support, advice and where we can signpost further services.

“And really through volunteering opportunities we try and foster a sense of community spirit within our young people.

“It’s important to say as well that the vast majority of our young people do play an active role in community life and are fantastic.”