ROWDY youths smashed tequila bottles in a village’s school car park last week, a meeting has heard.

At a gathering of West Linton Community Council (WLCC) on Monday evening, community police officer Sergeant James Harrison heard about the latest trouble and sought solutions.

WLCC member Doug Veitch, who lives near the school and often walks his dog in the area at night, told of being threatened when a youth said: “What are you going to do about us, old man?”

Mr Veitch added: “There is very loud noise from 9pm and it often goes on till 2am or 3am.

“[There are] smashed bottles and people driving cars past the barriers and into the primary school car park.

“Bottles have also been thrown at the school windows.”

WLCC chair Mark McDavid said: “Some residents are quite fearful of retribution if they make a report.”

Ian Reid, a member of the public, added: “I think it is important that we define them as adults, not youths.

“There is a seriousness about it that we minimise at our peril.”

Earlier, Mr McDavid welcomed Sgt Harrison to the meeting and said he did not want to hear about the lack of resources to tackle anti-social behaviour (ASB).

Sgt Harrison said: “In August there were 2,363 calls to the police across the Scottish Borders and 22 from West Linton but none of those related to ASB.

“I am aware that people believe they have been reporting these issues but that those reports are being lost.

“To dedicate resources to an issue there needs to be a report either to 101 or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

“Without incident numbers it is hard to get an idea of the scale of the problem.

“Unless we see some doing something there is little we can do about it without an admission or witnesses.

“Members of the Community Action Team have been out on patrol.”

Mr McDavid said: “The best thing would be for the police to visit late on a Friday or Saturday night.”

Mr Veitch said: “Why are there not incident numbers?

“I know reports have been made more than once including CCTV footage sent from the school janitor.”

Mr Reid said that recently there was a walk round the village with councillors and perhaps the same thing could be done with police officers to get some human contact.