creating communities to be proud of
dealing with anti-social behaviour
This section is designed to give you practical advice and information to help you deal with neighbour nuisance, anti-social behaviour and racial harassment. It gives some examples of what we consider to be unacceptable behaviour or nuisance. It also contains details of how we will respond to your complaint.
Quick Links
Documents
Statement of Anti-Social Behaviour Policy and Procedure 
(339kb)
Summary of Anti-Social Behaviour Policy and Procedure (49kb)
Dealing with neighbour nuisance (175kb)
Tackling hate crime...our commitment (218kb)
Tackling racial harassment (223kb)
Anti-social behaviour
There are many types of nuisance and anti-social behaviour, including:
- Noise – playing loud music, arguing and shouting, slamming doors and DIY noise
- Gardens – overgrown, rubbish, bonfires
- Pets – dogs barking, fouling common areas, poor conditions
- Environmental – litter, graffiti, fly-tipping
- Vehicles – parking on grassed areas, repairs, dangerous driving
- Drugs – substance misuse, supplying or dealing
- Violence – aggressive or threatening behaviour or language or actual violence (including malicious telephone calls)
- Harassment and intimidation – verbal or physical abuse, hate crime
- Incitement - stirring up hatred by displaying or sending offensive material
- Damage to property - including fences, cars and other property
- Arson - or attempted arson
All criminal activity should be reported directly to the police.
Dealing with nuisance and anti-social behaviour
What you can do
Speak to your neighbour – This is often the best approach, as most people are reasonable if spoken to in person. People are often not aware that they or someone in their household are causing you nuisance.
Preparation – Think about what you want to say beforehand. Be clear about what the problem is and how it affects you. Don’t stray from the issue.
How to behave – Stay calm and friendly. Becoming aggressive will not help the situation. Explain what the problem is and how it is affecting you. Listen to your neighbour and think about what they say to you. Try not to interrupt and do not shout or use bad language, even if your neighbour does. Try not to bring up incidents from the past and concentrate on the current situation and what needs to change to make things better. If your neighbour becomes aggressive or abusive – end the discussion.
Keep a record of events – It may be helpful for you to keep a record of the time and date of incidents, the details and to note how this made you feel.
What we can do
If speaking to the people concerned yourself does not work, and if the problem continues, contact the Neighbourhood Services team on telephone number 0845 849 2000 to speak to a Neighbourhood Officer. The Neighbourhood Officer will contact you within set timescales to get more information from you and decide a way forward.
Mediation
In many cases of neighbour dispute mediation can offer a valuable contribution to resolving the problem. The Community Mediation Service is an independent organisation which offers a free, impartial service and will speak to both or all parties involved to try to establish some common ground and work towards an agreement. Contact the Community Mediation Service on (01472) 251054.
How we deal with your complaint
To help us deal effectively with nuisance and anti-social behaviour, we prioritise the complaints we receive. This does not mean that we do not take your complaints seriously, however we must deal with the more serious cases first. Please note that we will not normally get involved in disputes between neighbours unless there is a clear breach of the tenancy agreement. In order for us to treat each complaint in a fair and open way we have categorised different kinds of nuisance and anti-social behaviour and given each type a different response time:
Responding to hate crime incidents within 2 working days
Responding to all other forms of anti-social behaviour within 5 working days
These categories are a guideline only – it is not always possible to follow the same procedure rigidly in each case, and the most appropriate course of action will be determined by the facts and information available. It will not always be necessary for us to visit you, as some problems can be resolved over the telephone.
Some of the problems that you report to us may not be our responsibility, or we may not be in a position to help you. In these circumstances we will explain to you the action we can take or refer you to other organisations, such as North East Lincolnshire Council.
What is hate crime?
Harassment or anti-social behaviour directed against certain individuals or groups is viewed as hate crime, where it is motivated by an offender's dislike of someone because of their:
- race, colour or ethnic origin
- nationality or national origins
- religion or belief
- gender or gender identity
- sexual orientation
- age
- disability
- hiv status
This is not a comprehensive list. Hate crime can include any incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person as being motivated by prejudice or hate.
We have a specific procedure for dealing with hate crime incidents. You can visit our Publications page and download a copy of our leaflet 'Tackling hate crime...our commitment'.
Racial harassment
We will not tolerate any form of racial harassment by or against our tenants and we are committed to working with partners to take effective action against the perpetrators of racial harassment or racist incidents.
Racial harassment is a hate crime and we are committed to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment
- Promoting good relations between people of different racial groups
- Maximising the number of incidents reported to it
- Supporting complainants, their families and witnesses
- Taking effective action against perpetrators
The current tenancy agreement includes a clause covering racial harassment which means that anyone carrying out racial harassment will be in breach of their tenancy conditions, thereby making it easier for us to take effective action when the perpetrator is identified.
We are committed to tackling racial harassment and have a separate policy detailing our approach. We have adopted the definition of a racist incident recommended by the MacPherson report:
“a racist incident is any incident which is perceived by the
victim or any other person to be racist.”
We have specific procedure for dealing with reports of racial harassment involving our tenants. You can visit our publications page and download a copy of our leaflet - Tackling Racial Harassment.
True Vision
In addition to reporting hate crimes and racial harassment reports to us, you can make them to Humberside Police through the True Vision scheme. True Vision initiative is currently being used by 37 police forces across the country and is a self reporting system which allows victims, witnesses or third parties the opportunity to report incidents by giving as much or as little information as they wish. Reports can be made anonymously, in which case they will form part of a statistical database on where incidents are occurring, or if personal details are given it will be investigated further by the police in accordance with the person making the reports wishes.
You can make reports at a number of reporting centres throughout North East Lincolnshire, including our Customer Service Centre. For a full list of where you can make reports, or to make a report on-line visit Humberside police's website. If you wish to make a report by telephone please contact 0800 138 1625. For more information on True Vision contact Caroline Spence, Community Cohesion Officer on Tel. (01472) 266571.
We need your help!
In some circumstances, where the problem is persistent, we may ask you to complete ‘neighbour nuisance diaries’. This will help us to build up a picture of events and will help us decide what action it is appropriate for us to take.
In more serious cases where legal action is being considered we may need to take more formal statements from you and discuss the possibility of you attending court to give evidence. We will offer you support and guidance throughout this process.
Working with other agencies
We work with other agencies, such as the local policing teams and neighbourhood officers, North East Lincolnshire Council Environmental Health Team, Safe and Clean, Neat Streets, Social Services and the Local Education Authority, in order to help resolve any problems at the earliest stage possible, and to offer support where appropriate.
Contact us
If you want to report nuisance, anti-social behaviour or racial harassment contact our Neighbourhood Services team on 0845 849 2000 or the Anti-Social Behaviour confidential 24-hour message line on (01472) 572174. You can also report an incident online using the form below.
If you supply us with your contact details we will contact you within 5 working days to discuss the issue further.
All reports are managed in the strictest confidence, however, should you wish to refrain from submitting contact details then please leave those sections blank.
Alternatively, you can e-mail us at asb@shorelinehp.com or call in to our Customer Service Centre or Make the Neighbourhood Better Centre - click here for details of where our offices are based.
Other useful contacts
Humberside Police |
0845 60 60 222 |
Community Mediation Services |
(01472) 251054 |
North East Lincolnshire Council Environmental Health team |
(01472) 324770 |
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