COMMUNITY leaders in a Borders town are hoping to enter into talks with “troublesome” youths in a bid to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Peebles Community Council is embarking on a proactive approach with Tweeddale Youth Action to try and put an end to the problem.

This month, community councillor Malcolm Bruce and youth manager Dave Hodson attempted to speak to youngsters gathering in the town to try and resolve some of the issues and to find out what social activities they would like to see implemented.

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Mr Bruce, who meets with the police community sergeant every month, said: “I am becoming more and more convinced now that we aren’t going to be able to police our way out of this situation.

“The more I look into it, the more I am convinced that one of the better ways to deal with this situation is to have an active dialogue with the kids in the town.

“At the minute, we’re all accusing them of all sorts of heinous crimes, but no-one is actually asking them what they think, or what they want, or what they would like to do.”

He added: “That’s a gap that I hope to fill over the next couple of months. It’s not going to be an easy gap to fill, because they’re not the easiest group to get representatives from. With the assistance of Dave, efforts are underway to open a dialogue, with, perhaps the more troublesome kids in the town, and just see why they do what they do.

“There’s no point in looking at a solution until we know what the problem is.”

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The olive branch was offered to youths recently, Mr Bruce explained.

He said: “We did try last weekend, handing out free pizza on Tweed Green, unfortunately, it was the nicest night and all the kids we wanted to speak to were up the Dookits and the river.

“Anti-social behaviour is going to be ongoing for months, but hopefully, a wee bit of talk will go a long way.”

Chairman Les Turnbull said that although Peebles is a low crime area, anti-social behaviour is a blight on the community.

“We’re playing a long game and we just have to keep working at it and hopefully a solution will come through and we can do something really positive,” said Mr Turnbull.

“We’re very fortunate to live in a low crime society, unfortunately, however, it’s the anti-social behaviour of a few that is causing the quality of life of quite a few of our residents, a reduced quality of life, and we’ve got to bear that in mind.”