Neighbours at war refuse council mediation support

NEIGHBOURS at war with each other are refusing offers of support from Dumfries and Galloway Council to finally make peace.

Residents involved in disputes with their neighbours often end up dealing with the local authority’s community safety team.

These council officers go to great lengths to resolve arguments and help repair relationships – but the vast majority of householders are too stubborn to sit down and talk.

The issue was discussed at the council’s education, skills, and community wellbeing committee on Tuesday.

A community safety team annual report for 2024/25 was tabled at the meeting and it showed that just 11 percent of neighbours who were rowing over the last year accepted the council’s offer of mediation.

Stranraer and the Rhins Councillor Ben Dashper said: “Looking at the mediation numbers, there were 87 offers of mediation – but only ten people or offers were taken up.

“That’s quite a gap. It’s good that we’re offering this service, but I’m just wondering why people aren’t necessarily taking the council up on it when the service is offered.”

Martin Ogilvie, the council’s resilience and community safety manager, replied: “Just to clarify – it’s not ten people who are accepting, it’s ten double parties.

“We offer mediation and this tends to be neighbours who are in dispute. We need both parties to agree to do that.

“We will make multiple offers. We will also make attempts to find neutral facilities and timing dates that suit, including evenings and weekends.

“But often, despite repeated attempts, one party will decide to pull out.

“We need both parties to agree, so there’s often not the same success rate we would hope for to try and find a common solution.”

The report also reveals that the community safety team dealt with 303 cases of antisocial behaviour within housing estates across the region over the past year. This equates to an average of 25 every month.

Only one of these has escalated to a full antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) being issued, however two interim ASBOs were handed out last year.

Three acceptable behaviour contracts were also drawn up by the council’s community safety team to keep disruptive residents in check.