A dramatic surge in anti-social behaviour in Edinburgh has prompted city authorities to call for action to tackle the issue.
Tensions have been rising since Bonfire Night, when a series of incidents saw Police Scotland arrest eight teenagers in connection with violent disorder in Niddrie.
The City Council is trying to tackle the problem by running a survey to get locals’ views on crime and anti-social behaviour in an effort “not only to understand local issues but to make recommendations.”
When the post hit X (formerly Twitter), some users replied with suggestions:
Take away the free anytime bus passes.
— LoveFist (@lovefist8666) November 19, 2023
While others were doubtful of what the council could do:
What can the council do if the government keep letting them out early or worse, off Scott free
— Steve McKenzie ?????????? (@CraftyStevie) November 19, 2023
A former duty manager, 22, at a local fast-food chain shared his experience of youth anti-social behaviour in his work place.
He said: “Anti-social behaviour from youths was an almost everyday occurrence, especially during the evening and on school holidays. It was often verbal abuse to both staff members and the public, making the job incredibly more difficult.
“Incidents also occasionally became physical with property damage, breaking doors, phone chargers, punching screens, smashing windows. However, we also had some particularly serious incidents, one of which was a group of 12-year-old girls breaking our security guard’s hand as she tried to stop them getting into the restaurant.”
The 22-year-old believes that the surge in anti-social behaviour is due to a “lack of proper engagement from the kids” as “a lot of them enjoy causing havoc but I don’t believe [they would] if they had something better to do.”
The man went on to add: “Parents were also often a problem, with them attempting to justify their kids’ behaviour and claim that it was unfair [that] their child was removed from the restaurant.”
Looking ahead: how Leith Links Activity Hub is helping to reduce anti-social behaviour
In light of the spate of anti-social incidents, the City of Edinburgh Council is working with Leith Links Activity Hub to create a “fun and inclusive activity zone.”
The concept, which began as a skate park, has grown into a larger-scale project to build an activity hub. It is part of a ten-year masterplan for Leith Links and other parks around the city, funded by Edinburgh Council’s Thriving Greenspaces Project, which works alongside local communities and landscape architects.
The park aims to create a shared community space for people of all ages whilst reducing anti-social behaviour in the area, by providing a safe place to socialise.
As outlined in the proposal plan, the hub would include bouldering rocks, a parkour and street gym, pump track for bikes, a mixed-age play zone, and a roller rink, alongside the ‘streetscape style skatepark’ that first inspired the project. The project also seeks to transform the Pavillion building into a café and community space.
Gordon, a graphic designer and local parent who has been involved in the campaign for over two years, said: “What we’re campaigning for would be a big positive from an antisocial behaviour perspective, because it would give the site purpose, and create free open access facilities for people of any age and background.
“In terms of antisocial behaviour, it is currently an area that definitely suffers from sporadic, low to medium, and high, social behaviour.”
In a previous incident, the park’s temporary toilets were subject to an arson attack which left the building very badly damaged. Gordon explained that vandals were able to access the building by climbing through a skylight in the roof, which was due to be fixed.
He also described an attack on the Leith Community Croft, a charity project that has been running for many years and is a popular spot for young people. He said: “Young folk do hang out there…It’s just a place to go and hang out after dark.
“There have been a few incidents where folk have damaged some of the greenhouses on the Croft. During the construction of that building, one of the diggers was set on fire.”
The proposed park aims to stop these incidents by providing a space with open access facilities for young people to socialise.
To gain feedback from the Leith community, a six week public consultation on the proposed designs for the Activity Hub was held, between 6 September 2023 and 21 October 2023. The responses collected from the consultation showed that of the 1082 people who completed the consultation, 84% supported the proposed designs.
Comments from local residents posted on Facebook following the consultation praised the well-designed and inclusive park as an amazing transformation for the Leith community.
While the majority response has been positive, Gordon added that there is some scepticism from locals: “Obviously, there’s lots of people who are not 100% behind it… but it seems as the majority support it. Any skatepark project comes up against a public feeling that is going to attract anti-social behaviour.”
Gordon added that he is also aware of the potential risks: “As a parent, I do always have a slight anxiety that because it is a very quiet area, if we’re successful in getting this project delivered, it would have a much higher footfall of people, so there tends to be a risk that there would be increased antisocial behaviour.”
However, he said he is reassured by the results of the other skatepark projects such as Saughton Park which used to have a lot of antisocial behaviour.
Gordon said: “The incidents that the police are called out to in Saughton Park have dramatically reduced since the skate park has been opened…so they defy people’s assumptions.
“It seems to be that what generally happens with skatepark projects is that there is an increase in social behaviour when it opens, but it drops off as the skate park self-polices.”
Leith Ward SNP Councillor, Adam Nols-McVey, expressed his support for the project. He said that: “Any local investment is to be welcomed and it would be fantastic to see this fairly unoccupied site within the park come to life. It’s certainly true that young people need a local space and plans which could provide that merit a great deal of thought and I know carry a lot of community support too.”
He added that: “One other aspect we’ll be looking at is making sure that space is developed with the “make space for girls” campaign too.”
Make space for girls is a UK-based charity which campaigns for the development of parks and public spaces with teenage girls in mind. They say that the majority of parks and open space aimed at teenagers consist of skateparks, BMX tracks or MUGAs (Multi-Use Games Areas). In a ‘Parkwork’ study carried out in May 2023, they found that 88% of teenagers using these facilities were boys.
When asked about the ‘Make space for girls’ campaign, Gordon said that he supports this campaign and hopes that this can be considered if the plans for the park go ahead. He said that: “if you make a space more welcoming to females, and you give them facilities that are going to appeal to them, that actually you fundamentally make it a safer place, by being balanced.”
Planning for the Leith Links Activity Park will begin early next year. Further updates will be available on their Facebook.
