Safety fears over drinking dens at Lanark Loch

The claim was made at the latest meeting of Lanark Community Council when it welcomed police liason officers to talk over current law-and-order issues in the burgh.

A community council member helping to organise the recently-introduced regular Park Runs through the loch’s woodlands said that teens were using part of the area as a drinking den with bushes providing cover for their activities. The area was, he said, littered with vodka and other bottles and cans, including ‘power’ drinks favoured by teenagers.

He added that a major safety worry wasn’t for the youths but for ordinary users of the loch as the youths had taken lifebelts from around the lochside to use as seats for their drinking den.

Police representatives said that they had been alerted to youth drinking in the area before and thought that extra patrols there had driven the youngsters away. However, if they had now returned, the police would again “pay extra attention” to the area.

The familiar problem of traffic snarl-ups in Woodstock Road was raised, one council member claiming that the problems already caused by on-street parking there had been added to by a white van regularly parking on the pavement and forcing at least one disabled buggy user to take to the road to get by it. Police said they would investigate.