£1m To Fight ‘Carnage And Crime’ On Night Streets

A campaign to end the “carnage and crime” on Scotland’s streets caused by the country’s booze and blades culture has received a £1m boost.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has announced the extra cash to pay for a range of initiatives aimed at reducing alcohol-related violence.

These are likely to include late night taxi marshal schemes and more high profile policing in trouble-spots.

The money was announced yesterday at the launch of the second year of the nationwide anti-violence campaign, Safer Scotland.

Action for the year ahead will focus on alcohol, knife crime and gang violence.

The funds will also be used to help crack down on the expected escalation of violence in town and city centres over the festive period.

Mr MacAskill announced the funding at the Communities Against Alcohol-Fuelled Violence conference held by the police Violence Reduction Unit, (VRU) which co-ordinates the Safer Scotland campaign.

He said: “I am particularly focused on breaking the link between alcohol, violence and disorder – an issue that is mirrored in town and city centres across the country every night.

“Our bevvy culture with drink, knocking it back as quickly as possible, fuels carnage and crime. It has got to stop.”

He said that the new money followed on the success of the campaign in its first year and would build on earlier measures, including a ban on shops and off-licences offering cut-price alcohol.

He added: “I’ve already outlined action to make sure that alcohol can’t be seen as a mitigating factor, to crack down on alcohol misuse by banning irresponsible promotions in off-sales and deal with the consequences by proposing a “polluter pays” approach to funding extra policing.

“I hope the projects funded through this additional money – such as taxi marshals, highly visible targeted policing, and safe night zones – can make the streets of our towns and cities safer and help people to have a more enjoyable Christmas and New Year.”

The £1m will be shared among the 32 local community safety partnerships across Scotland.

Glasgow, which will receive £100,000, the largest share, was praised for the success of its existing initiatives including increased police patrols around pubs in “nite zones” which have helped reduce the number of glass attacks in licensed premises by 42%.

A mobile medical unit and a first aid post will be piloted in Glasgow city centre in the month over the festive period. An ambulance, driver and paramedic will respond to incidents. A static first aid post will be manned by two members of the British Red Cross to treat minor injuries.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, head of the VRU, said: “The sort of things that Glasgow is doing, like the late nite zone (where officers visit every licensed premises on Friday and Saturday nights) are making a real difference. Hopefully that will now lead on to similar successes in towns and cities across Scotland.”

Bill Aitken, convener of the Scottish Parliament Justice Committee and Glasgow Tory MSP, said the investment was a start, but more was needed to make a real impact on improving public safety.

He said: “It is welcome as far as it goes, but Kenny MacAskill has to realise that the only way to make Scotland’s streets safer is to beef up the visible police presence.”

John Lamont MSP, shadow Minister for Community Safety, said: “The one thing that was noticeably absent, again, from the Justice Secretary’s speech were details about the 1000 extra police officers promised by the SNP at the recent elections.”

“When will the number of police officers in Scotland rise from 16,000 to 17,000, as the SNP promised us?”

Meanwhile Mr MacAskill also stressed that action was needed to end the “dichotomy” of Scots disliking their negative image as aggressive drunks, while admiring hard drinking.

He said: “We are not prohibitionist. People should enjoy our drinks and our pubs and clubs, but they should not be drinking to get blootered. There is a general consensus that we cannot go on as we are.”