I had a conversation last week with a woman in Ferguslie Park that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.
She told me she won’t let her 12-year-old walk to the shops after 4pm. Not because of traffic. Not because of the distance. Because of a group of older teenagers who hang around the entrance, and because twice in the past month her son has come home shaken after being threatened.
She reported it. She was told it would be logged. Nothing happened.
This is not an isolated story. I’ve heard versions of it on doorsteps across Paisley — in Foxbar, in Gallowhill, in the town centre. People who feel unsafe in their own streets. People who have stopped reporting incidents because nothing comes of it. People who have adjusted their daily lives — their routes, their routines, their children’s freedoms — around anti-social behaviour that nobody seems willing to confront.
That is not acceptable. And it is not inevitable.
The problem is visible — and fixable
Let me be clear about what I’m talking about. This is not about demonising young people. The vast majority of teenagers in Paisley are decent, bored, and badly served by a lack of things to do and places to go. The problem is a relatively small number of persistent offenders — and a system that has neither the resources nor the willpower to deal with them.
Anti-social behaviour. Visible drug use. Vandalism. Low-level intimidation. These things corrode a community. They drive people indoors. They close shops. They make parks unusable. And they fall disproportionately on the people who can least afford to move away from them — people in social housing, in the most deprived wards, who deserve exactly the same safety as everyone else.
What I will fight for
Visible community policing. Not officers behind desks filling in forms. Police walking streets, knowing names, building trust. Renfrewshire’s new community policing initiative is a step in the right direction, but it needs to be properly resourced and sustained — not a pilot that gets quietly cut when the budget tightens.
Consequences that mean something. Repeat offenders need to face real consequences. I support tougher enforcement against persistent anti-social behaviour, including enforcement of existing ASBOs, meaningful community payback orders, and — for serious or violent repeat offenders — custodial sentences that actually deter.
Early intervention that prevents the next generation. Enforcement alone doesn’t solve the root causes. I will push for properly funded youth services — youth clubs, sports programmes, mentoring schemes — that give young people alternatives to the street. Every pound spent on early intervention saves ten pounds on policing, courts, and prisons. This is not soft — it is smart.
Better-lit streets. It sounds basic, but it matters enormously. Streetlights that have been turned off to save money need to be turned back on. Dark underpasses, poorly lit car parks, unlit paths — these are the spaces where people feel most vulnerable. I will push for a full street lighting audit and investment in the areas where residents feel least safe.
Women’s safety. I will be an unwavering advocate for the safety of women and girls. Full funding for domestic abuse services in Renfrewshire. Support for Equally Safe implementation. Tougher sentencing for perpetrators. And a town centre that women can walk through after dark without crossing the street.
This is the foundation
Community safety is not a side issue. It is the foundation that everything else is built on. You cannot regenerate a town centre if people are afraid to visit it. You cannot improve educational outcomes if children are afraid to walk to school. You cannot build a thriving local economy if shop owners are afraid to stay open past 5pm.
The parties have treated community safety as a talking point — something to mention in a manifesto and forget about in government. I will treat it as a daily priority, because that is what the people on the doorsteps of Paisley are telling me it needs to be.
William Wallace
Independent Candidate for Paisley
If you have concerns about safety in your area that you want raised, get in touch. I’m listening — and I’ll keep listening after 7 May. votewilliamwallace.com