A popular park in West Lothian that is loved by dog walkers and kids has saw a spate of destructive fires take place.
Locals say that the problem has been ongoing at Balbardie Park for years and according to one man, nothing is being done about it.
Tommy Davidson alleges that West Lothian council officers are “ignoring the issue” as trees, wheely bins and shelter areas are set on fire most weeks.
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He says that he has continuously called on the local authority and officers to take action but that his pleas have fallen on deaf ears, the Daily Record reports.
Tommy said: “I was told by the Fire Brigade it costs around £2,000 per call out.
“The trees have been set alight, residents have lost count of the number of plastic bins and the sports centre bins that have been burned out.
“Residents and dog walkers are sick of the mess and the council officers’ lack of responsibility and action.
“Elected Councillors should have the authority to make decisions and take action, but their hands are tied by council officers.
“If we add up the cost over the past five years alone, it must amount to thousands for fire service call outs each week.
“The seating area needs removed and the area needs to be monitored by the police.
“This current ignoring the problem attitude is simply not good enough and urgent action needs to be taken. If this was happening near a council officers home, how would they like this?”
Tommy has written to Bathgate councillor Harry Cartmill about removing shelters.
The councillor responded: "The consensus is that whilst the shelter encourages youths to gather and there are regular instances of anti-social behaviour and vandalism; the police know where the youths are gathering and as the shelter is located away from residential properties and other assets in the park, the vandalism tends to be of low cost and the disruption to neighbours is kept to a minimum.
"If the shelter is removed, the youths will gather elsewhere in the park and may become more disruptive for residents living near the park. The obvious gathering point would be the play park nearby as there is enough equipment for them to sit on and if they started damaging the play park this would be far more costly to repair than the damage being caused to the shelter and surrounding area.
"Removing the shelter would not solve the ongoing issue of anti-social behaviour and would likely move the problem to another area of the park that would be more disruptive to neighbours of the park and more costly for the council to repair damage."
A West Lothian Council spokesperson stressed the local authority only has “limited powers” to deal with such issues.
He continued: “We are aware of ongoing issues involving anti-social behaviour in Balbardie Park of Peace in Bathgate and regularly work with our partners at Police Scotland and the Youth Action Project to try and address them.
“We have discussed the removal of the shelter with our partners on several occasions, and the consensus is that this would likely only move the issue rather than solve it. The shelter is located away from residential properties and other parts of the park, so removing it could lead to more disruption near the homes of residents and more costly damage.
“Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to this type of problem, and the council only has limited powers it can use to tackle this. We will continue to monitor the issue along with our partners, taking appropriate action where we can.”
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