I was horrified to see in the Gazette that Paul, a regular contributor to this site was attacked when confronting a gang of youths in Thornhill Square.  The Gazette reports:

‘Councillor Convery said: "I was going through on my bike when I saw this bunch of kids throwing eggs at people on the other side of the square, so I started trying to reason with them. One of them tried to swing a couple of kicks at my bike and they threw some stones which struck me in my head."’

‘He may have been left with cuts to his forehead – but councillor Convery remains philosophical. He said: "It is a little intimidating when you have a dozen kids with their hoods up, all ‘bigging it up’ and gesturing like they are in an MTV video. But they are still just kids deep down and that’s the heartbreaking thing. There is actually a better life than hanging round on street corners being horrible to people."‘

Get well soon Paul and don’t let this put you off – we need you here.

I’ve have had rocks thrown at me a couple of times by the local kids, mainly on Carnoustie Drive, but their aim was poor (one half brick did miss my head by about an inch).  Paul is right though – at the end of the day tackling this problem is about giving the kids better things to do and other channels for their risk taking behaviour.  Locking them up, bringing back the birch etc won’t work.  Well funded, long term youth work such as that by the Copenhagen Youth Project  is the only answer.