EXTRA police patrols are being carried out at Ardentinny beach following concerns over antisocial behaviour involving visitors to the area.
Police Scotland has confirmed patrols are being deployed at the popular Cowal beauty spot in response to ongoing concerns about antisocial behaviour.
The issue was highlighted in a Police Scotland report presented to Dunoon Community Council, last month, which stated that officers were continuing to carry out additional patrols at Ardentinny beach due to antisocial behaviour associated with visitors.
Police have now stressed the particular impact even relatively low-level antisocial behaviour can have on small rural communities.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “ASB in rural communities can have a stronger impact as it often takes place within smaller close-knit villages.
“Low level ASB can increase fear, especially among older residents. Our geographical challenges can also result in slower response times allowing problems to persist longer.
“We very much look to our calls and incidents recorded over the period of a week which allows us to use analytics to task our resources to those areas where we see an increase in community concern.”
How to report ASB
Police are encouraging residents to continue reporting incidents, stressing that information received from the public can influence where local resources are deployed.
The spokesperson added: “We always encourage our local community to report ASB so that we can work together with other partners to maximise our response.
“Whether these calls relate to neighbour disputes, a group regularly gathering and causing disruption or vandalism, it’s important that we know about it to allow us to task our resources to where they are needed most.”
Police Scotland has not provided details of the nature or number of incidents which have prompted the additional patrols at Ardentinny beach.
Residents are being reminded to call 999 in an emergency or 101 for non-emergency matters.
People who are deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or speech impaired can use Text Relay on 18001 101.
Police Scotland also advises that where callers experience a lengthy wait on 101 due to high demand, non-emergency matters can be reported using its online contact form.
