This comes after police delivered their annual performance report to councillors last week at East Renfrewshire’s cabinet meeting.

Headline figures include that disorder, theft, street drinking and anti-social behaviour have all fallen dramatically in East Renfrewshire.

Disorder in the county has dropped by almost a quarter and it was also revealed that the number of complaints received by Police Scotland stands at 11 for every 10,000 police incidents.

However the number of serious assaults has increased in the last year and police have also marked Barrhead and Neilston as serious assault hot spots, with the majority of assaults taking place between 11.30pm and 2am.

The police report said: “Last year’s reports of assault and serious assault were at an historically low level, unfortunately both have increased this year.

“Through interrogation of police systems and data analysis we can say that serious assaults occur between 11.30pm and 2am.

“Some of which occur within licenses premises and others outdoors.

“All occur within Barrhead and Neilston areas and Alcohol is a factor in the majority of the serous assaults and all perpetrators are male.” To counter the rise in assaults police have been visiting bars and shops licensed to sell booze and checking known places of drug use, such as toilets in bars and pubs.

And despite the rise in the number of assaults, the number of arrests has also risen in line, with a rise of 22 per cent when it comes to arrests for common assaults.

Reports of disorder throughout East Renfrewshire have also continued to fall with a 24.4 per cent drop in complaints.

Vandalism has ben reduced by 10.4 per cent while street drinking cases have dropped by more than a third at 35.8 per cent.

The report was delivered by Chief Inspector Angela Carty and Chief Superintendent Andy Bates, who concluded: “We have demonstrated that overall our performance has been positive however I recognise some areas where there is work to be done.

“I give you my assurance that we will continue to sustain areas of good performance while focusing on areas for improvement.

“I am delighted with the results this quarter but would like to acknowledge that none of these would be possible without the support and assistance from our partners across Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire.”