An Aberdeen city centre business chief has praised the safety record of the area after a new report found it still had the most crimes in the city.
Collated figures between 2013 and 2017, due to be presented to councillors next week, show the beat had far more crimes reported under every category than elsewhere in the city.
Police have said the high number of people coming into and leaving the area at nights, and the high number of pubs and clubs, somewhat skew the figures.
Last night Aberdeen Inspired chief executive – a retired police officer – Adrian Watson last night praised the force and pointed to the five consecutive safety awards that have been won.
He said: “It is well evidenced that Police Scotland do a tremendous amount of work in Aberdeen city centre, making it one of the safest in the UK.
“Our police do much in support of Aberdeen Inspired, the businesses and a host of other organisations in ensuring our city continues to secure the much sought-after Association of Town and City Management’s (ATCM) Purple Flag accreditation, which is essentially about all things related to safety.
“As part of this, recent findings from the ATCM explicitly stated that Aberdeen was the strongest and most effective city centre collaboration of its kind in the UK.
“Of course, Aberdeen is Scotland’s third city and with that comes the occasional challenge, with no room whatsoever for complacency. However, it is worth pointing out that our city centre, which is obviously very different in composition to the rest of Aberdeen, has continued to see much welcomed falls in crimes and offences, across the board.”
