Anti-social behaviour

We will work with other organisations including the police, housing associations and local groups to prevent anti-social behaviour and deal with its effects. 

Working in partnership

We belong to the local Community Safety Partnership, which has been set up to focus on issues such as safety and secuirty, crime, vandalism and drug and alcohol abuse. We also work closely with the Street Wardens who have a key role in helping to prevent anti-social behaviour by working with people to improve safety in local neighbourhoods.

Step one:

Many problems are simple to sort out, for example overgrown gardens and abandoned vehicles. In these cases we will work with the person involved to solve them.

Step two:

Where cases are not as simple, for example those which involve nuisance or harassment, we will talk to you in more detail before starting an investigation. Depending on the nature of the complaint, a member of the Anti-Social Behaviour team or your Housing Officer will discuss the best course of action with you.

We may send you incident log sheets so you can write down what has happened, or arrange an appointment to discuss the matter in full. The meeting can take place at your home, or somewhere else if you prefer.

Where the matter is serious, such as an imminent threat to someone's safety, investigations will start within 1 working day of you reporting it to us. We will ask you questions about the problems, and may need to speak to other people in your household who have been affected. We may decide at this point to write or contact the person alleged to be causing you the nuisance.

Nuisance Action Plan

Together we'll agree a Nuisance Action Plan, stating what you should do and what we will do to sort out the problem. From then on, we will be working in partnership with you, keeping to the actions we jointly agreed. The Action Plan will include contact details of the Officer investigating your complaints. It will also include details of other agencies that may be able to help, for example the Police.

Mediation

Where the problem is caused by a neighbour dispute and you do not feel comfortable about talking it through with the other party, we can arrange mediation. Mediation is a voluntary way of resolving disputes without going to court. It is becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to more lengthy, costly and confrontational approaches to dispute resolution.

The mediation process involves an expert advisor who can help all parties reach a fair conclusion to the problem.

Gathering evidence

Before we can start taking action we will need evidence from you or other people who have witnessed the behaviour. Examples include:

• information that you or other witnesses give us
• incident Log Sheets, completed by you or other witnesses, which provide details of incidents when they happen
• supporting evidence from other agencies such as the Police or Street Wardens.

Taking action

When we have collected evidence we will decide what to do next. We will visit the perpetrator to hear their side of the story, and where appropriate tell them that their actions are a breach of their tenancy agreement.

We will respond with a mixture of intervention and enforcement. Where needed, we will take appropriate legal action to make sure that the anti-social behaviour ends.

Keeping you informed

We will keep you informed of developments in your case at all times. Senior Managers check the progress of cases with Officers often, to make sure we are getting it right.

Closing a case

When we have completed our investigation, and either the nuisance has ceased or no further action is required, we will consider closing the case. We will write to confirm when we have closed a case and give you a contact number in case of further problems. We may ask for your opinion on how your case was handled, This helps us to continually improve the quality of our service.