McConnell to crackdown on anti-social behaviour

JACK McConnell, the First Minister, declared war on yobs yesterday when he pledged to make law and order a top priority in the first year of his new administration.

Mr McConnell said: "No street in Scotland should be a no-go zone for any citizen, young or old," adding that Scots were "sick and tired" of seeing their local areas "dragged down" by crime and disorder, ranging from graffiti and vandalised bus shelters to damaged cars and physical attacks.

He issued the pledge after visiting a rundown part of Glasgow’s Garthamlock suburb with Cathy Jamieson, the newly-appointed justice minister, and Margaret Curran, the communities minister

The First Minister is expected to tell parliament next Wednesday of his plans for an anti-social behaviour bill, which would provide for anti-social behaviour orders for youngsters and, more controversially, new civil law "parental orders" to make parents more responsible for their children’s actions. The new bill, Mr McConnell said yesterday, would be "one of the new Executive’s highest priorities".

With his two newly-appointed ministers, Mr McConnell inspected a row of shops in Mossvale Road, their frontages heavily shuttered and daubed with graffiti.

Only yards away, a gable wall on a row of flats, freshly painted this week, according to local residents, was already disfigured with graffiti.

Mr McConnell said: "We will continue to increase police numbers but, much more importantly, we will give them the powers and the laws that will back them up, back the councils up in tackling the sort of problems that we see here. I think it will make a real difference and that is going to be a big priority."