The Scottish Government was last night accused of preventing Northern Constabulary adopting tough measures to combat antisocial behaviour by young people.
The Highland police force has asked ministers if a curfew could be introduced in Inverness to keep under-16s off the streets at night. Similar measures were piloted in Lanarkshire in 1997.
But it emerged the idea has been abandoned following a meeting with officials working for Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing.
The government insisted the police had dropped the idea of their own accord. But the force said they decided not to go ahead because the government would not grant the powers it sought.
Labour justice spokesman Richard Baker accused the government of being soft on antisocial behaviour.
He said the powers could have been granted under legislation passed by the previous Scottish Executive but the present government refused to use them.
Mr Baker said: “I think it is unacceptable. Frankly, when a police force says it needs to have access to new powers, it should be getting assistance from the Scottish Government, not having ministers stand in their way.”
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP David Stewart said he was disappointed by the government’s stance.
“I know from the work I have been doing locally that antisocial behaviour is top of the agenda for many of my constituents, particularly on some of the estates I have been dealing with in the Inverness area,” he said.
In a parliamentary answer, Mr Ewing said his officials met representatives from Northern Constabulary on June 3.
He added: “Northern Constabulary subsequently indicated to officials that they did not plan to take forward this proposal at this time.
“We have indicated to Northern Constabulary that we are happy to explore any other options with them and will work with them, and other partners, to support the development of effective approaches to dealing with this very small minority of young people that cause the most serious problems in our communities.”
A police spokesman said it was not the case that the force had dropped the idea.
“We received proposals from the Scottish Government which give us no further powers but we fully intend to build some of the proposals into our current procedures,” he said.