If you are in the very difficult situation of living in a street or road where Anti-Social Behaviour is a regular occurrence, you will be well aware of the entrenched nature of the problems you face and the difficulties involved in initiating an effective response.

ASB Solutions

Suggestions as to what actions you can take to encourage the appropriate agencies and public bodies to act are outlined below. It would, however, be disingenuous of ASBODATA to state that the following advice will solve the problem of ASB in your road or street. Sadly, the reality is that unless and until the main perpetrators of the ASB are stopped the problems will continue.

What You Can Do

Contact and report any problems to your local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and your Local Authority’s Community Safety Unit and/or Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. They are required by law to have published policy and procedures in place to tackle ASB reported to them. For details of your local points of contact go to the governments Home Office web site.

Local Ward councillors

Contact and report any problems to your local ward councillor and initiate a ‘Community Call for Action’. The government is committed to new legislation, which places a legal duty on ward councillors to consider and respond to issues within a specified timeframe. Once an issue of persistent anti-social behaviour is raised the local authority will have to make public the action they will take or the reason why they will not take action.

Police and Communities Together Meetings

Attend your local PACT meetings - Police and Communities Together meetings give you the chance to meet your neighbourhood policing team face to face every month, have a say on how your neighbourhood is policed, what the problems are and monitor police performance. Police and Communities Together gives you the chance to have your say and influence what happens in your neighbourhood.

Gather Evidence

It is important to ask yourself: Am I prepared to give evidence in the form of a statement? For obvious and understandable reasons, such as fear of reprisals and repercussions, you may not wish to make a statement. In this case, it is advisable to gather evidence and pass it onto the Local Authority. You could, for example, keep written records about what is happening (with details of dates, times and locations) and pass on the information anonymously. You could also have a camera installed to enable the authorities to covertly gather direct evidence of the problems affecting your road or street.

Local Authority Ombudsman

If, in your view, a Local Authority has done nothing to address the situation in your road or street, you may make a complaint to the Local Authority Ombudsman. If your complaint is upheld you may be entitled to financial compensation.