The idea of allowing victims of crime to meet those who committed the offence to both allow the perpetrator to apologise and give those who have suffered some kind of closure is, inherently, a sound one.

So it is a little disappointing that the impact of a scheme to enable supposedly “low level” crimes to be sorted out without recourse to the courts has not been as great as anticipated.

There have been some successes, of course, but in the first year of the project there have only been nine successful meetings organised out of 37 possible referrals. However, the scheme is said to compare well to other such initiatives nationally.

The crimes which are eligible for such treatment – thefts to the value of less than £100, neighbour disputes, small-scale criminal damage – are perhaps best dealt with at this level rather than going through costly court cases and landing people who have acted impetuously or out of character with criminal records that can ruin their lives.

But those organising these events must take every effort to ensure the criminals in question are genuinely sorry for their actions, and not opting for the meeting in the hope they can get away with a quick and insincere apology rather than being dealt with by the law.

Perhaps there is some understandable reticence on the part of the victims of these incidents to meet with those who have caused them ill, or maybe some perpetrators of anti-social behaviour simply don’t wish to apologise for their behaviour.

But it’s a scheme worth sticking with, and let us hope that in future as it beds in it bears more positive fruit.