Dunfermline police catch youths who started fires in Glen

There was a spate of vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the Glen earlier this year and Fife Council agreed funding in March to put up more CCTV cameras.

At the City of Dunfermline area committee on Tuesday, Chief Inspector Kathryn Fairfield said the problems have died down – for now.

She told councillors: "We had a number of issues earlier on in the year in relation to fires being set in Pittencrieff Park.

"Working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the safer communities team we managed to get a number of these youths identified for this.

A previous fire in Pittencrieff Park badly damaged the play park in the lower part of the Glen. Photo: Jim Payne. (Image: Jim Payne)

"Work was carried out with the youth justice system and parents to try and divert this attention and these behaviours.

"Continuing our proactive patrols in this area has also seen this issue decrease albeit we acknowledge this may spike up again given the time of year."

Ch Insp Fairfield said Operation Prevail has been set up to tackle anti-social behaviour and said the main areas for trouble are the Calais Woods, Pittencrieff Park and Dunfermline Bus Station.

She continued: "At the moment we're not seeing any huge increases or hotspots but I'm also conscious that the time of year, with light nights, better weather and schools about to break up on holiday, we'll see a natural increase in some anti-social behaviour calls to these areas."

The Press previously launched the 'Protect our Glen' campaign in 2021, sparked by mindless vandals setting fire to memorial benches in the park, and called for more CCTV to be installed.

The chief inspector added: "We'll continue to review call trends and demand and, where possible, direct our resources to these specific areas."

Asked about the 'hotspot' areas, Inspector Neil McGurk told the committee that they do engage with schools and set up sporting and leisure activities to try and divert youngsters away from trouble.

He said: "The kids think they're out of the way and no-one can see them, in the woods or in the park."

The inspector said there had been "great improvements" at the bus station but that there were problems around the Tesco store in Duloch, where some of the businesses have come up with their own measures to try and stop trouble.

Insp McGurk said: "Unfortunately there's no magic wand in preventing that kind of behaviour."

Discussing the police performance in the city, Ch Insp Fairfield said they were starting to see "a lot more footfall" in Dunfermline's night-time economy, with pubs and nightclubs becoming more popular again, but very little trouble or violence.

However, online fraud remains a persistent problem.

She told councillors: "That's one area we did see a big spike in, pretty much during Covid, which was in line with the rest of Scotland.

"The schemes are becoming more sophisticated and we have, unfortunately, had a couple of people in West Fife who have lost quite considerable sums of money to online fraud.

"Where we get details of new scams coming through we'll do our best to share the information as much as possible."