FIGURES show a huge rise in anti-social behaviour in Dunfermline last year while residents were also hailed for "leading the way" in tackling fly-tipping.

Fife Council said there were reasons for the troubling jump, which saw 287 cases investigated in the area in 2020-21, up from 65 the previous year.

Safer communities manager Dawn Jamieson told councillors at the City of Dunfermline area committee: "There was a significant increase in the number of anti-social behaviour cases that were dealt with by our officers.

"To provide some context, while there's no doubt that anti-social behaviour has increased overall, we dealt with all reported cases in the first six months of the pandemic – historically, housing management officers would have dealt with some of them."

In the past year, four Acceptable Behaviour Agreements were issued to residents in Dunfermline, one interim Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and one full ASBO were granted by Dunfermline Sheriff Court, and one council tenancy was converted into a Short Scottish Secure Tenancy (SSST) – essentially being put on probation – due to ongoing anti-social behaviour.

She added: "Currently, all measures are working well, but it is still too early to predict any final outcomes."

Giving an update on the safer communities team, Ms Jamieson said COVID had curbed many of their activities but they were able to carry out more patrols to try to stop trouble.

"We worked in a different way," she explained. "We provided all of our officers with additional vehicles which allowed them to carry out single-person patrols.

"We also received less requests for service in relation to environmental enforcement and there were no community engagement events during the pandemic so that freed up a lot of officer time."

Environmental enforcement includes fly-tipping and councillors were pleasantly surprised to see a drop in the number of complaints.

There were also fewer gripes about abandoned vehicles, dog-fouling, domestic noise nuisance and littering compared to 2019-20.

There were 521 complaints about fly-tipping, down from 590 the previous year, and Cllr Calder said: "All of us have heard complaints about lots of fly-tipping and that it must be because the recycling centres were closed.

"Perhaps there's a difference between the reality and the perception? It does look like there's been a reduction."

Ms Jamieson said: "It's quite strange to be perfectly honest because fly-tipping did increase in some areas but not in the city of Dunfermline and nor did it in two or three other areas.

"There were only three areas where we did see an increase in fly-tipping so I'm not sure whether the residents of Dunfermline were just being particularly careful with their waste and doing the responsible thing, as we would like all people to do.

"Long may it continue."

Cllr Garry Haldane added: "It's good to hear that Dunfermline, the ancient capital of Scotland, is leading the way throughout Fife."

Complaints about dog-fouling dropped from 125 to 88 and the number of stray dogs reported to wardens fell from 27 to 10.

Five of the strays were microchipped but unfortunately did not contain the correct details for their owners.

Seven were reclaimed eventually or returned to the owner and three were passed to an animal charity for assessment and rehoming.

Four Dunfermline residents were given advice regarding the control of their dog, down from eight in 2019-20, and six dog control warning letters were sent, one more than the previous year.

Three dog control notices were issued, a big improvement from 13 in 2019-20.