Anti Social Behaviour

What to consider before reporting ASB

Is the behaviour ASB?

Particularly when living in close proximity to our neighbours, sometimes they may do things that irritate us or disturb us, but think about what they are actually doing and whether this is antisocial. Everyone can expect some noise from the people who live around them and we ask that you are tolerant of this.

The following are unlikely to be classed as Anti-Social Behaviour.

• Babies crying
• Children playing
• Cooking smells
• One off parties or incidents
• Normal household noise
• DIY (at a reasonable hour)
• Personal disputes or tit for tat neighbour disputes.
• Parking disputes
• Dogs barking unless it is persistent

Approaching your neighbour

If you know who is causing the problem and you feel safe to do so, speak to your neighbour. Explain how their activities or behaviour is affecting you. They might not be aware and likely to appreciate you letting them know. This approach can often help to build and sustain neighbourly relationships. You can also download our Dear Neighbour cards here which could help with approaching your neighbour with your concerns.

Keeping a record

Write down details of the incident(s), the dates and times that it occurred and exactly what happened or what was said. When you contact us to report ASB, you will be asked for this information as it will help us deal with your concerns. Our diary sheets will help you do this.

Reporting to Other Agencies

Other agencies also have powers to deal with anti-social behaviour for example:-
Police – contact if the ASB is serious, causing significant disturbance late at night such as very loud music or if the behaviour is also criminal. 
Environmental Health Department, Argyll and Bute Council – The Environmental Health department have a duty to deal with statutory nuisance including noise nuisance.
Social Work Department, Argyll and Bute Councils – If you have safeguarding concerns you should report these to the social work department at the Council.
SSPCA – If you have concerns about the welfare of an animal this should be reported to the SSPCA.

Anonymous reporting

Although you may make reports of ASB anonymously, sometimes this can limit the actions we can take. Please be reassured we will not disclose your identity if you do not want us to.

What happens after I make an ASB report?

When we receive your report, we will make contact with you to gather as many details as possible and to agree the next step. We will try to do this as quickly as possible, but as a minimum this will be as follows. 

• Within 1 working day for high level ASB
• Within 5 working days for medium level ASB.
• Within 10 working days for low level ASB

We will agree an action plan with you and agree the timescales and method for keeping in contact with you.

We will investigate your complaint thoroughly. In some cases we will not be able to deal with your complaint as ASB if it does not meet our definition of ASB. If this is the case, we will let you know as soon as possible and explain the reasons why. We will offer you advice and may refer you to other agencies or mediation to help to resolve the issues you are experiencing.

If your complaint does meet our definition of ASB, in most cases the first step would be for us to contact the person causing you the ASB. They would need to be made aware of their behaviour and the problems that it is causing, so that they have an opportunity to change their behaviour. We would not reveal your identity to this person but it may be obvious to them who has complained.

We will also complete any other investigations that may be appropriate such as speaking to other witnesses, potential witnesses and other agencies who may have been involved. We would then assess the evidence that we have to see if the ASB can be proven to the civil standard.

If we believe there is evidence of ASB we will decide the best action to take to resolve the ASB. We will look at the following factors when deciding which action to take:-

• The type of behaviour
• The severity and frequency of incidents
• The evidence that is available
• The impact that the behaviour is having
• Who else is being affected
• Whether the person/people whose behaviour is causing problems has been given an opportunity to change it (depending on the severity of it) and whether there has been an improvement
• What other intervention(s) has/ have been considered or tried so far

Once we have taken action to resolve the ASB we will close the case and send you a letter and satisfaction survey to complete. We will continue to monitor the situation at a frequency and for a period of time we have agreed with you, to check that the action we have taken has resolved the ASB.

Wherever possible, we would try to resolve reports of ASB without taking legal action. In some cases where the ASB is very serious, persistent and other resolutions have failed we may need to take Court action. We can only take Court action where there is good evidence of ASB and complainants may need to act as witnesses in any Court proceedings.