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Quick links
- Introduction,
- Our Commitment,
- What is antisocial behaviour?,
- Remedies available to us when tackling antisocial behaviour,
- Service Standards,
- Collecting Evidence,
- Registered Social Landlords,
- Management of ASB cases,
- Case Closure,
- Information Sharing,
- Repairs and Graffiti,
- Links with the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership,
- Domestic Violence Protocol,
- Racial Harassment Policy,
- The Crime and Disorder Act 1998,
- Any Queries?.
This page describes Babergh’s Housing Service’s policy on tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB) among council tenants and provides tenants and the public with guidance on what Babergh, as a landlord authority, will do when antisocial behaviour occurs.
We are committed to providing a high quality housing service, which includes having effective ways of tackling antisocial behaviour. Our approach is designed to provide a range of options that can be used to deal with different forms and levels of antisocial behaviour, according to the circumstances of each individual situation.
Our antisocial behaviour policy should be put in the context of the following principles:
- Everyone has the right to their chosen lifestyle, provided it does not spoil the quality of life of others.
- Neighbours must exercise a degree of tolerance towards the lifestyle of those living around them.
The Housing Service will demonstrate by its actions that it will not tolerate antisocial behaviour and will make this absolutely clear to its tenants and to any person who is seeking a tenancy.
The Council’s tenancy agreement is a legal binding contract between the Council and its tenants. It specifically prohibits tenants, members of their household and guests from any act of harassment, nuisance, disturbance or act in any way that constitutes antisocial behaviour. Action for breach of tenancy can lead to eviction under the terms of the Housing Act 1995 as amended or to seek an injunction requiring compliance with the terms of the agreement.
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The Housing Service has the main responsibility for tackling ASB in Babergh's housing stock and will work in partnership with other services such as Environmental Health, Police, Mediation Services, Youth Offending Teams, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Social Services and Education.
The Housing Service will take early and proactive action to respond to such complaints to prevent these from escalating into more serious antisocial behaviour.
Early intervention in resolving problems is recognised as the key to resolving problems and avoid escalation of any issues.
We aim:
- To ensure that complaints of antisocial behaviour are accurately recorded and monitored
- To ensure that early action is taken, where appropriate, to prevent the escalation of behaviour that is a nuisance and thoughtless, into serious antisocial behaviour that threatens and intimidates
- To advise and support the victim/witness or services that the Council and other agencies provide
- To fully investigate complaints of antisocial behaviour within the given timescale
- To take appropriate legal action where there is evidence against perpetrators
- To ensure all relevant staff are fully trained to be able to deal with complaints of antisocial behaviour
- To fully recognise the importance of multi-agency working and will work in partnership with our key agencies such as the police.
- To ensure that a District wide strategic approach to tackling antisocial behaviour is drawn from best practice and consistent with the Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy.
- To make links with other local organisations, tenant/resident groups and Registered Social Landlords to establish joint initiatives and working practices in tackling the antisocial behaviour
- To provide tenancy support to vulnerable council tenants involved in antisocial behaviour
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Any conduct, which is capable of causing a nuisance or annoyance to another person residing, visiting or otherwise engaged in a lawful activity in the locality, can constitute antisocial behaviour.
All behaviour, whether or not it is itself criminal, which can cause or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to other people, including behaviour that puts people in fear of crime. Complaints will be classified as being either major or minor, examples of these include but are not limited to:
Major antisocial behaviour complaints
Criminal behaviour
Using and selling drugs
Intimidation/assault
Damage to property (including graffiti and vandalism)
Prostitution (including commercial sex workers and kerb crawlers)
Hate Crimes/Harassment (i.e. Racial, Homophobic, Sexual Harassment and Domestic Violence)
Harassment
Court Order cases
Act/Incident that may have initially been considered to be major incidents but have subsequently been reviewed and it has been decided that they should be treated as a major ASB complaint because the incidents they have continued over a sustained period of time or as result of the effect they are having on the complainant(s)
Minor antisocial behaviour complaints
A minor incident can be defined as a less serious act/incident(s) of antisocial behaviour such as dispute or a nuisance, which does not involve criminal behaviour, drugs, violence or damage to property. The circumstances of each case must be individually considered to determine the severity of the complaint. Minor incidents may later develop into more serious cases of antisocial behaviour and therefore reclassified as a major ASB incident.
Minor ASB incidents may include:
- Verbal abuse (including foul or abusive language)
- Noise
- Alcohol and solvent abuse
- Nuisance from vehicles (including parking and abandonment)
- Unkempt gardens (such as those attracting dumping of goods, creating eyesores and attracting vermin)
- Rubbish dumping and misuse of communal areas (e.g. car repairs)
- Intimidating gatherings of young people in public places
- Aggressive begging
- Uncontrolled pets and animals
- Riding motorbikes or mopeds on anywhere other than the public highway
- Riding/cycling and the use of skateboards on footpaths and balconies
- Nuisance from business use
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- Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBO’s)
The effective use of ASBO’s is a key feature in resolving anti social behaviour incidents. They will be used by Babergh to reduce crime and anti social behaviour in the area and help make it a better place to live.
ASBO’s are civil orders that exist to protect the public from behaviour that causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. An order contains conditions prohibiting the offender from specific antisocial acts or entering areas and is effective for a minimum of two 2 years.
The Courts will grant the Council an eviction order if it is established that a tenant is a perpetrator of nuisance, antisocial behaviour or harassment and the Court believe that the loss of the home is the appropriate action.
- Powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Statutory Nuisance Act 1993
Under these acts if the Babergh`s environmental health team consider that the noise amounts to a statutory nuisance they can serve an abatement notice. If the nuisance continues without reasonable excuse, the noisemaker.
The Council’s Environmental Services Division also has additional powers to deal with:
- ASB issues that are a potential statutory nuisance.
- Fly Tipping
- Abandoned vehicles
- Acceptable Behaviour Contracts
An Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) is a written agreement between a person who has been involved in antisocial behaviour and one or more local agencies whose role it is to prevent such behaviour. They are most commonly used for young people i.e. between ten (10) and eighteen (18) years of age but may also be used for adults. The contract is agreed and signed at a meeting with the individual and the lead agencies i.e. Housing and the Police. An ABC is a voluntary agreement requiring co-operation from all parties. If it is breached there is no legal redress although evidence collected for an ABC or a breach may be cited in courting support of a possession order or ASBO.
We will apply to the court for a housing injunction to prevent behaviour capable of causing nuisance and annoyance, which indirectly or directly affects our housing management functions. The use of injunctions is useful to exclude perpetrators from the areas where they have been causing trouble and wider categories of people can be protected.
If a tenant behaves antisocially or allows a member of their household or visitors to do so, we can apply to the court for a demotion order ending the tenant’s existing tenancy and replacing it with a less secure demoted tenancy. This removes the tenant’s Right to Buy and security of tenure for at least a year. At the end of the year if we are satisfied by the tenant’s conduct of the tenancy the full rights will be restored.
The Mediation Service helps neighbours settle disputes about noise nuisance, boundaries, rubbish, children’s behaviour etc through guidance ad mediation. Disputes between neighbours if left unresolved and allowed to continue, can often result in serious antisocial behaviour. Mediation is a different way of tackling conflict. Mediators do not advise but have the skills to help people resolve their disputes and work out how to live with their differences. Babergh will make arrangements for mediation to be made available.
- Floating Support Services
The Floating Support Service is aimed at vulnerable council tenants who need extra help and support to maintain their tenancy and live independently in the community. This floating support service that can provide assistance with a range of issues including neighbour disputes and getting extra help from specialist care and support agencies.
- Removal from waiting List
A new application to join the Housing Register (also known as the waiting List) will be refused if the applicant has a known or has had a serious history of antisocial behaviour.
Under certain circumstances the Council is permitted to deny the Right to Buy when dealing with major antisocial behaviour cases. The Council will use its full powers in this regard.
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When we receive a complaint we aim to:
- Deal with all complaints seriously, sensitively and confidentially.
- Have special procedures in place to deal with complaints of domestic violence and racial harassment.
- Acknowledge every report of antisocial behaviour, in writing, within 1 working day of receiving a complaint.
- Commence an investigation on every report of antisocial behaviour within 2 working days of receiving a complaint.
- Endeavour to interview the complainant and the perpetrator, together with all other interested parties within 14 working days, if major complaints, and within 28 days if minor complaints.
- Investigate and make an initial assessment within 28 working days for major complaints and within 36 working days for minor complaints.
- Agree with the complainant a course of action and timescale.
- Establish regular contact with the complainant and the perpetrator during the investigation.
- Take action against the perpetrators of antisocial behaviour, which may include court action for an injunction, possession proceedings.
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A crucial part of tackling antisocial behaviour is the need to establish evidence against the perpetrator. We see court action as a last resort and would expect, in the first instance, to seek resolution to problems by voluntary agreement, where appropriate.
However, when this fails we will pursue court action if we have sufficient evidence to justify such action. The Council’s Legal Services Team advises the Housing Division when it believes sufficient evidence has been collected to justify taking court action. We will support Complainants and witnesses of antisocial behaviour in the collection of evidence by the following methods.
We aim to -
- take the lead role in co-ordinating and assessing the case
- provide a named Officer who will be responsible for working with witnesses and who will maintain a record of what has happened
- provide well-formatted diary sheets and check early entries to ensure they are completed as necessary.
- encourage witnesses to work with us and other key players e.g. the police.
- seek an injunction or court order to restrain the perpetrator if there is a threat of violence or actual violence.
- keep the witnesses informed of developments during the investigation.
- accompany witnesses to court and stay with them throughout their involvement with the court proceedings, providing support as necessary
- consider the need for physical protection
- consider any special needs of the witness
- arrange access to translation/ interpreters in the appropriate community language as required and we welcome the use of advocates by victims of antisocial behaviour.
- Use Professional Witnesses in the process of gathering evidence during the investigation of any anti social behaviour case when appropriate eg.when threats have been made against witnesses.
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The Council is committed to working in partnership with and sharing good practise with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to reduce crime and disorder in the Babergh District. Representatives from RSLs who have housing stock in the District are partners in the Case Conferencing Group, the Information Sharing Group. and the RSL Management Group.
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A multi-agency review team called the 'Antisocial Behaviour Case Conference' meets every four weeks. The lead officer for co-ordinating this meeting is the Council’s ASB Network Officer. At these meetings Officers carry out the following tasks:
- Review all new, outstanding acceptable behaviour contract complaints, individual case action plans and make decisions regarding case progression and closure
- Review and monitor at all stages, ASB legal action cases including cases where ASBO’s have been obtained and acceptable behaviour contracts agreed
- Discuss estate problems, crime hotspots, cross boundary issues involving neighbouring registered social landlord and council residents
- Identify ways of raising the profile of the consequences of ASB
- Reach a multi-agency agreement as to whether to apply for ASBO’s and or initiate other forms of legal action
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In situations when, following an investigation, the Council concludes that the complaints of antisocial behaviour are either malicious, untrue, or exaggerated the case will be closed. The complainant and the person(s) who have been complained about will be written to explaining that the case has been closed and the reasons why. Only when there has been a clear change in circumstances will the case be reopened.
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Information Sharing
The Council has signed up to joint information sharing protocol with its partner’s agencies (the Police, all Registered Social landlords in the District and the County Council). This protocol deals with the sharing of information between relevant local agencies in relation to incidents and perpetrators.
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Repairs and Graffiti – fast track responses
The Housing Service will carry out emergency repairs to damaged council property where major incidents of ASB or harassment have occurred (i.e. where there is a danger to life or limb, major damage to the property or if the property is insecure). Once ordered offensive, obscene or hate crime motivated graffiti on council property will be removed within twenty-four hours and other types of reported graffiti within three working days.
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Links with the Crime And Disorder Reduction Partnership
The Babergh Crime And Disorder Reduction Partnership provides a range of services, projects and programmes to reduce crime and disorder in the district. It does this by co-ordinating the development and implementation of the statutory Crime and Disorder Reduction Audit and Strategy and working with local communities in developing activities to reduce crime and disorder. In addition to neighbourhood based schemes the partnership manages district wide programmes to tackle antisocial behaviour, burglary, and retail and business crime.
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Domestic Violence Protocol
The Housing Service will work within the guidelines adopted by the ‘Domestic Violence Protocol and Procedures for Local Authorities and Registered Social Landlords’ in managing reported incidents of Domestic Violence. Copy available on request.
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Racial Harassment Policy
The Housing Service will work within the guidelines of the Suffolk Racial Harassment Initiative were there is a reported incident of racial harassment. The aim of the initiative is to ensure that sufferers of racial harassment are aware of the support that is available and that they can access it. The initiative ensures that all incidents of racial harassment are properly and sensitively investigated. Details available on request.
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The Crime and Disorder Act 1998
The Crime and Disorder Act places a duty on local authorities and the police to form a partnership and develop with key partners a Crime and Disorder and Drug Misuse Strategy. There is a duty for each authority to exercise its various functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all that is reasonably can to prevent, crime and disorder in its area.
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Any Queries?
If you would like advice and assistance on matters such as harassment, antisocial behaviour or noise and nuisances, please click on the Form link and complete and we will get back to you as soon as we can. |