Stornoway Community Council is to host a public meeting to discuss the town's anti-social behaviour issues.

They will be holding this public meeting on Wednesday May 25 at The Fàilte Centre on Bayhead at 7pm, and everyone is welcome to attend.

In a press release issued on behalf of Stornoway Community Council last night (Thursday May 19), they state: "Stornoway has been dealing with the problem of groups of youths displaying extremely anti-social behaviour for quite some time now – a problem which came to a head last month when a family were terrorised by one gang in video footage that was posted online, which then led to a petition being launched (by Louisa Barron-MacDonald), calling for action. That petition received nearly 2000 signatures.

"Stornoway Community Council has come together with the MacDonald family to hold a public meeting as a first step to addressing and attempting to resolve these ongoing problems. As we see it, there are two main strands to this complex issue.

"There is the fact the behaviours are severely anti-social and have been causing real fear and alarm, with members of the community experiencing all sorts of threats and behaviours.

"Then there is the child protection aspect and we would like to see what can be done, if we bring the right people together round the table, in terms of getting these youngsters onto a better path and setting them up for a better future.

"As a first step, we will be holding this public meeting on the 25th of May at The Failte Centre on Bayhead at 7pm, and everyone is welcome to attend, including representatives from the media.

"As a second step, we hope to set up an inter-agency partnership, which would also include lay representatives from the community, to begin working together with the ambitious objective of turning this situation around for the sake of our town and the young people. 

"We have invited a number of agencies to the meeting and have been encouraged by the responses so far.

"We have the support of the local Chief Inspector, Alasdair Macleod, who has confirmed he will be attending the meeting and participating in the group.

"The goal of this meeting is to bring forward the concerns of the community and ultimately build a co-ordinated approach from all relevant agencies – led by Stornoway Community Council."