Anti-social behaviour (ASB) can have a serious impact on the lives of our residents and we want to be able to deal with reports effectively and appropriately. It can be defined as any action capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to any person. It can include:
- Abandoned vehicles
- Animals – uncontrolled dogs and other pets
- Businesses causing a nuisance
- Criminal activity
- Domestic disputes and disturbances
- Drug or alcohol abuse and drug dealing
- Fly tipping
- Graffiti
- Playing loud music at anti-social hours
- Playing in unsuitable area
- Sparking and vehicle problems
- Racial, sexual and other harassment
- Upkeep of gardens and communal areas
- Using or threatening to use violence
- Vandalism and criminal damage.
Before reporting anti-social behaviour
Before making a report, it's important to know the things we don't class as anti-social behaviour. Some examples are:
- One-off indiscriminate noise nuisance (e.g. a party)
- Climbing on buildings (if no damage occurs and the act is not designed to harass or intimidate anyone)
- Ball games (though we might investigate if the noise was persistent - against someone’s wall, for instance)
- Trivial neighbour arguments where there are no witnesses
- Reports that are made solely because of prejudice or intolerance to someone’s lifestyle or characteristics and therefore are deemed to be mischievous/malicious in nature. In such cases, the person making that report might find themselves in breach of their occupancy agreement and action might be taken against them.
In some of these instances, we may advise you to try and resolve the issue by talking to the neighbour/person, or by agreeing to mediation.
If you do choose to speak to the person causing you distress, try to follow these few tips:
- Keep calm and do not raise your voice
- Explain your problem to them and suggest possible solutions
- Give the other person the opportunity to respond and put forward their point of view
- Try to come to an agreement on what happens next
- Do not make threats or swear and do not retaliate
How to report anti-social behaviour
To report ASB, get in touch with your housing officer/PMO as soon as possible.
If you feel threatened in your home or believe there to have been a criminal act taken place, please call the police urgently.
How we manage reports of anti-social behaviour
Each case will be treated individually. Once ASB has been reported, we'll arrange a personal interview with you to record full details of your complaint and investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, all in confidentiality.
As a general rule the interview will be carried out within:
- 24 hours for serious ASB, like harassment or where there is a threat of violence;
- 5 days for other less serious types of ASB.
We'll consider what everyone involved has to say and try to help you resolve the problem mutually, as this is usually the quickest and most permanent way of resolving initial complaints. To help you do this we may put you in touch with independent mediators who are skilled in helping and supporting neighbours to reach a solution that is acceptable to both parties. We may ask you to collect more evidence of incidents or to keep a diary sheet.
Next steps
There are a number of solutions that we can use to prevent ASB continuing, such as:
- Mediation
- Informal warnings
- Referring the problem to enforcement agencies like the police or the local authority's environmental health department
- Working in partnership with other agencies such as Social Services or Youth Services who have additional skills and powers
- Supporting vulnerable perpetrators to help them control their behaviour, for example where the anti-social behaviour is due to mental health problems
- Physical improvements, such as better lighting in communal areas
- Community development projects, such as sports activities for young people
- Acceptable behaviour contracts.
It's our policy to do everything we can to resolve issues at an early stage, by using preventative measures. However, where appropriate, we will use legal enforcement, which could result in a resident losing his/her home.