THE reduction in serious violence in Glasgow in recent years is a welcome step towards a safer city.

Efforts to tackle youth gang crime in certain areas has also been a success with fewer incidents and fewer young people carrying weapons.

The death of a young person through mindless gang violence is devastating for the family and too many have suffered in this way over many decades in this city.

This has been one of Glasgow's enduring problems, territorial gang violence that normalises knife carrying and sees young men take knives when they venture further afield into the city centre, often in the misguided belief it protects them.

The peer educators are key to the No Knives Better Lives campaign. They can give first-hand accounts of their experience and a warning from someone a young person can identify with can have a greater effect than from an authority figure of police or teacher, whose input is also of great importance.

The initiative is being rolled out across Scotland, but the focus must be kept strong in Glasgow, where it is still a problem although signs of improvement are evident.

Hopefully, this city will be finally able to shed its shameful and devastating reputation for knife crime once and for all.