GLASGOW'S antisocial behaviour "tsar" yesterday questioned the value of ASBOs as official figures showed the city council has not sought a single order in three years.
Councillor Jim Coleman said slapping antisocial behaviour orders - one of First Minister Jack McConnell's flagship policies - on persistent trouble-makers did no more than offer short-term peace of mind to neighbours, and they should only ever be use
d as a last resort.
A Scottish Executive report yesterday showed that while more ASBOs were being taken out on "neds" and other offenders in Scotland, huge variations continued across the country, and that councils were far less inclined than their English counterparts to use the orders.
Glasgow City Council failed to obtain a single ASBO between April 2003 and March 2006.
Seventeen orders were obtained by Glasgow Housing Association, but Scotland's biggest city, plagued with more antisocial behaviour than any other part of the country, remains one of the least likely to use them.
Mr Coleman, chairman of the council's arms-length company Community Safety and Services, said early interventions and support for families were the key to tackling antisocial behaviour, not ASBOs. "We are trying to deal with the causes of crime. That's why we have a low reoffending rate," he said.
He added: "There is a role for ASBOs and we will use them as a last resort. But we have many other programmes in place."
Mr Coleman insisted the council "did not have a problem" with Mr McConnell's repeated attacks on councils for failing to take out enough ASBOs, claiming the council could show its early intervention strategy was working.
He said a restorative justice programme, which had 4,000 young offenders meet with parents and victims, had led to a reoffending rate of six per cent.
Another successful recent scheme involved showing parents CCTV footage of their children causing trouble.
Glasgow council's reluctance to use ASBOs is in marked contrast to Edinburgh, where 71 were served in the past three years, 41 in 2005-6 alone.
The capital's housing leader, Councillor Sheila Gilmore, said this was a direct result of the council making community safety a specific policy objective three years ago, and extra funding from the Executive in 2004 to be spent on enforcement.
"We take ASBOs very seriously and we should not be afraid to use them if they are effective, which they have proven to be," Ms Gilmore said.
Since 1 April, 2005, the council has received 12,363 noise complaints, and issued 1,183 warning letters and 54 fines.
The latest figures show that 283 ASBOs were granted in Scotland in 2005-6 - a surge of 38 per cent on 2004-5 and double that of the previous year.
But just five councils - North Lanarkshire, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife and North Ayrshire - accounted for more than half of all ASBOs applications last year. One council, Argyll and Bute, has not obtained a single ASBO since they were introduced in 1999.
In the past year, four orders were granted in relation to 12 to 15-year-olds - two in Edinburgh, one in Dundee and one in Renfrewshire. But half of all ASBO subjects were over 26.
About 150 ASBOs were breached, or nearly a third of the total in force at the end of the year. In most cases, breaches led to police action.
The deputy justice minister, Johann Lamont, said "Today's figures are further evidence that disruption, intimidation and abuse are being tackled.
"We have never set targets for the use of tough enforcement measures such as this.
"However, ASBOs are increasingly an appropriate and effective way of bringing an end to the blight of antisocial behaviour.
"
SNP shadow justice minister Kenny MacAskill said the figures showed ASBOs were a short-term fix.
Tory justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell claimed ASBOs had been a "total failure" in tackling youth disorder.
The full article contains 667 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
