PLANS are in the pipeline for a young people’s ‘shelter’ in Peebles amid a bid to tackle anti-social behaviour in the town.

The move was revealed on Tuesday, at a meeting of Tweeddale Area Partnership.

Members were told that young people themselves had suggested the shelter as a safe gathering point.

And the collaboration with young people was labelled a “very important move forward”.

Hannah Lacon, Tweeddale’s community engagement officer, said: “It was a  group that came from Peebles Community Council in regard to the anti-social behaviour issues that were seen around Tweeddale.

“It was a collective group of various community groups, youth groups, Community Learning and Development from the High School, Police Scotland. They all came together to try and provide a stronger provision for young people to try to tackle some of the anti-social behaviour problems we had been seeing.

“We are looking to change the use of anti-social behaviour, I know I’ve used the term a couple of times, and change our language.

"The idea was to gather some young people together, which they have done at Tweeddale Youth Action at School Brae in Peebles. So they were brought together as sort of a mini-consultation, where they were able to share their views with us as a collective group of adults and let us know what is missing in their area and what they would like for Peebles and what they are feeling.”

Among the suggestions was a shelter for young people to be located near Peebles Skate Park and provision of music and film nights at the town’s  Eastgate Theatre aimed specifically at teens and overseen by Police Scotland.

Tweeddale East Conservative councillor Julie Pirone added: “The most important thing for me is that this is young people participating in local democracy and we have been struggling to get them to engage with us for a long time.

“They also feel misaligned as well. They think that everybody thinks if they have got their hoods up they’re going to be up to mischief, and actually they’re not and what they’re needing are places to go that they feel comfortable in and they can be themselves.

“So the young people asked for the shelter and we are looking at designs and plans for that and we’ll be doing some consultation on that. For me this is a very important move forwards.”