RESIDENTS in the east end of Glasgow have said they are too “frightened” to report anti-social behaviour where a community centre is being vandalised.
The Bridgeton Community Learning Campus is currently undergoing improvement works but is being targeted every day by vandals, a meeting heard.
Labour councillor Cecilia O’Lone said residents in the Reidvale area had seen cars smashed and asked for information on how residents could be supported.
Calling for more CCTV in the area as anti-social behaviour is constant, housing representative Margaret Storrie told the Calton Area Partnership meeting: “People are frightened. They are scared to tell the police because their lives could be in danger.”
East Local Area Commander Greg Robertson said that sometimes incidents are not reported because of a confidence issue or because people are “fearful of repercussions”.
Robertson urged O’Lone to contact the police with issues on people’s behalf if they don’t want to report a crime themselves. He added: “Knowing about it is the best thing.”
Labour councillor George Redmond said: “What we have to understand is the police can’t do this on our own. We need to try and provide as much support as we can.”
Redmond added that some “probably don’t see the police as a threat on their own”.
SNP councillor Linda Pike has said residents know who the young people causing problems are but that “nobody is willing to say who they are”.
Lesley Ward, of the Third Sector Forum, said: “Vandalism is happening on a daily basis at the Bridgeton Community Learning Campus.
“As you are aware there is a new green space development going on in the Old Dalmarnock Road area. It is looking amazing but on a daily basis it is getting vandalised.”
Ward said a new gate was “kicked down” the day after it was created, that there is evidence of drug use and graffiti and that fires are being lit.
She added: “It seems to me there’s an awful lot of money being spent and it is just ongoing – it is being destroyed as it is being developed.”
Police Sergeant Bobby Fisher said there are hopes to introduce diversionary tactics to keep youths busy on Friday and Saturday evenings when disorder mostly happens in the Bridgeton area.
He said the police are working on the problems at the Bridgeton Community Learning Centre but there is a struggle to gain “hard evidence”.
