Local councillors are not being told enough about what the police are doing in their wards.

Community sergeants at meetings in Whitburn and Linlithgow were this week grilled about the lack of detail about police activity in the wards in their reports to councillors.

And one senior councillor branded the police reports delivered to local area committees as “ cut and paste”, with no relevance to communities they were supposedly addressing.

The issue is one that has been raised before, since the way local police reporting changed a few years ago, and West Lothian Council is currently in discussions with Police Scotland over the provision of greater analysis of local crime figures and trends.

Kirsteen Sullivan, depute leader of the council, said greater information would help concentrate resources where they were most needed.

Speaking at the Whitburn and Blackburn local area committee on Monday, Labour councillor Sullivan admitted that it was a question she had asked police at every meeting of the Local Area Committee. “ Do you have any further update on when we are going to get more detailed reports?” she asked of community Sergeant Mike Harte.

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