Under the Liberal Democrats, we made sure that Newcastle City Under the Liberal Democrats, we made sure that Newcastle City Council took tackling Anti Social Behaviour seriously, adopting a ‘Victim Approach To Anti-Social Behaviour’.
The background to adopting this approach was the Pilkington family, an infamous case which involved a woman tragically killing herself and her daughter, as a result of the family being subject to persistent incidents of hate crime and ASB.
This case highlighted a need to extend the Safe Newcastle Partnership response to ASB by ensuring:
Newcastle City Council began the development of a multi-agency database designed to ensure that reported Anti-Social Behaviour was shared.
‘Your Homes Newcastle’, which manages the council’s housing stock, extended its Housing Anti-Social Behaviour & Enforcement Team service by:
‘Safe Newcastle’ the Crime Reduction Partnership for the City was effectively chaired by the Liberal Democrats for seven years and during that time Safer Newcastle provided funds for a range of activity to support effective action to tackle Anti Social Behaviour (ASB). This included: the Student Community Safety Initiative, an ASB Environmental Health Officer, Selective Licensing areas, redeployable CCTV cameras, and legal support for ASB enforcement action.
The partnership recognised the need to ensure provision of similar service standards, comparable to those for ‘Your Homes Newcastle’ tenants, to residents who are owner occupiers or who live in the private rented sector.
The ‘Victim Approach to Anti Social Behaviour’ is a multi-agency commitment to deal with ASB no matter what the tenure of the property is.
Agencies such as the Police, Registered Social Landlords, Regulatory Services, Victim Support & Safe Newcastle work together to protect and support victims of ASB and these arrangements are supported by:
Good practice case studies include:
1. Supporting the victim and getting results
Jane and her partner Phil suffered from noise nuisance, harassment and threats from their downstairs neighbours since they moved into their privately rented flat. The neighbours made threats, caused noise nuisance through loud music and shouting and act in an intimidating manner towards Jane and Phil. Jane is a survivor of domestic abuse from a previous relationship. Jane was pregnant and the stress and lack of sleep has impacted on her health.
Newcastle City Council notified the ASB Victim Worker that they were dealing with a vulnerable victim and support was put in place. The support was provided alongside enforcement action taken by Newcastle City Council. Colleagues from the Public Health, Housing Selective Licensing team and Noise Team worked together Work continued with the landlord and the offending tenant to try and address the tenant’s behaviour and in turn prevent any actions to end the tenancy. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful. Interim Anti-Social Behaviour Orders were obtained against the tenant and her partner, and when this also failed to curb the behaviour the Selective Licensing team assisted the landlord to collate the evidence to enable possession of the property through the county court.
The ASB Victim Worker continued to visit the complainants and provided ongoing emotional support, as well as supporting them at court. The Interim Anti-Social Behaviour Orders were breached by both the tenant and her guest within a week of them being issued; this resulted in the guest being sent to jail for 12 weeks, and the tenant received hefty fines. The landlord also secured possession of the property, and the tenant was evicted.
Through a partnership approach this case action was taken swiftly, the victim was supported and her quality of life improved significantly.
2. Intervention to support young people
A young person, living with her mum, also lived with two sisters, both involved with low level anti social activity and her two brothers, also teenagers, who were both involved in the criminal justice system. The family rent a property from the council.
She was referred to the project by ‘Your Homes Newcastle’ Family Intervention Project; they were concerned with the amount of crime and anti social behaviour associated with the household. She appeared to be following in the footsteps of her siblings/peers, and the family was on the brink of being evicted from the property.
She became involved with a positive peer group, undertaking an award program, developing confidence and self esteem, and achievement. She participated in one to one sessions exploring consequences of actions, respect for herself, others, and peer pressure. Her involvement in a drama and video project exploring and dramatising issues current to young people (knife crime, peer pressure, bullying.)
She moved on to attend the established girls group, and explored issues including personal safety and boundaries, and developed her confidence sufficiently to support the other young females in the group and helped staff to deliver elements of the sessions and workshops to other young people. She is doing well at school, being successful in her school’s ‘dance best’ auditions, she often calls into the project to catch up with staff and on occasions has helped out with small projects with other young people.
3. Support for mum
The project gave a range of support and interventions to the mother, including support with housing issues, positive parenting programs, developing strategies for boundary setting and dealing with negative behaviour within the family setting. ‘Your Homes Newcastle’ have lifted the eviction notice as mum has made progress in dealing with the disruption associated with the household, and she has enrolled on a further education course to enhance her chances of employment in the future.
Under the Lib Dems, Newcastle City Council also:
1. Cracked down on binge drinking
2. Supported everybody living in student areas
3. Helped people get home safely at night
4. Helped deal with community tensions