It's time to restore warden service

BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP NEIL BIBBY

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If only vandals did day shift - if only those determined to cause mayhem simply clocked off at the end of the working day.

If antisocial behaviour only occurred in Paisley town centre, nowhere else in our communities, and only during office hours.

If any of this was the case, our SNP council's policy of having our wardens service finish at seven o'clock every night and seemingly only operate in the centre of town might make some kind of sense.

But none of it makes sense because that is not the nature of the problems they were supposed to deal with.

It was Labour who introduced the warden service to Paisley nearly 20 years ago.

Then, the intention was for them to prevent antisocial behaviour in hotspots - day and night - around the town, in local neighbourhoods and to back up the police by giving them important intelligence about who was responsible for wrongdoing.