I recently met with Chief Superintendent Gareth Blair and Chief Inspector Helen Harrison to discuss local crime and policing issues.

There is a series of anti-social behaviour issues in the Liberton Gilmerton ward which the Police updated me on. I was pleased to see progress on motorbike crime with a decrease in reported incidents overall. However some particular hotspots continue to cause issues. The police gave a commitment to continue to tackle this.

On car and home break-ins in Morningside I stressed the need for the Police to be more visible in the community, provide faster response times and also communicate prevention measures with the community more clearly.

I am pleased to report that the Police have allocated a significant number of plainclothes officers to the affected areas in an attempt to catch the culprits. This has been quite successful and a number of arrests have been made – including of a key perpetrator. I have been assured that the Police will continue to give the area special attention and am pleased that there has recently been a fall in reported house and car break-ins.

Please let me know if there are other hotspots in the constituency so that these can be fed into the local police programme.

I will continue to monitor all these issues closely and will work with the Police to have specific issues highlighted.