SOUTH Ayrshire’s annual Safer Shore Campaign is now underway to improve community safety and reduce antisocial behaviour throughout the summer months.

Led by South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership, along with South Ayrshire Police, British Transport Police (BTP) and Scotrail, the campaign is now in it’s fifth year.

The initiative aims to involve regular high visibility patrols, particularly on Ayr’s Esplanade.

South Ayrshire Police and BTP will also introduce a zero tolerance approach to drinking alcohol in public.

CCTV cameras have been placed in hot spot areas around South Ayrshire to provide additional coverage during the busy summer months and these will be enhanced by joint patrols to target litter and dog fouling and noise nuisance patrols.

Chief Inspector Gary I’Anson, chairman of the South Ayrshire Community Safety Partnership said: “In collaboration with our partners including South Ayrshire Council, British Transport Police and Network Rail and a variety of other key partners, we are fully committed to ensuring that our beaches throughout South Ayrshire can be enjoyed by our local communities and visitors to the area.

“We will have officers on high visibility patrols throughout the summer dedicated to patrolling the beaches.

“We want everyone to enjoy the beaches however any incidents of anti-social behaviour will be dealt with robustly.”

Claire Monaghan, head of communities at South Ayrshire Council said: “Ayr is a great place to visit, especially during the holidays and the vast majority of people leave the beach happy and we want to keep it that way.

“We don’t want the actions of a few people to ruin a pleasurable day out for everyone else, so anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.

"The message is clear, enjoy the beach and have fun but don’t cause problems or you could receive a fixed penalty or worse.”

A spokesman for the South Ayrshire Police Division, added: “This is the fifth year of the campaign and it grows every year.

“If large groups are coming to any of the beaches through any forms of transport, British Transport Police will inform us so we are then able to deploy more resources to that particular area.”