Dear Sir,

As a Councillor I am frequently asked to help residents in my ward with cases of Anti Social Behaviour. Many of the cases which I hear are quite heart rending, especially when they affect the elderly or involve children. Often with remarks such as ‘the police and council don’t seem to care’, and ‘I am at the end of my tether and feel hopeless’.

This can lead to mental stress and other disorders. I have heard of people who cause this distress as persons of an alternative lifestyle and may include drug abuse and alcoholism, however, in my humble opinion, they should not be interfering with the lives of neighbours.

Anti Social and Criminal behaviour has been increasing over the four years I have been an elected councillor and I believe the time has come to take action.

First though we must distinguish between several different bodies who can be involved in helping with this behaviour and some of the powers various organisations have to help deal with these problems.

Many people think of livin as the council, whereas livin is a social landlord. Our town council has very little authority to deal with ASB, tending to pass most matters onto other authorities as explained below.

1. In many cases your first port of call will be Durham Police who can be reached by ringing 101, this will take you to a call centre which will assess the seriousness of your problem and allocate police personnel accordingly. Please always ask for a case number so this may be logged and referred to later. You may be asked to record or set up a diary of incidents.

2. If you feel in imminent danger, or feel the incident is more serious, call 999 for urgent action.

3. Should the problem be fly tipping or nuisance from a private rental property, residents can request help from https://doitonline.durham.gov.uk which has a subsection headed ASB. Durham County Council has a department which deals with private landlords.

4. If the problem is coming from a livin property, contact livin on 0800 587 4538 or https://www.livin.co.uk

5. Finally, contact your local Town or County Councillor who may be able to signpost or help. Contact details are available from Great Aycliffe Town Council website or ring 01325 300700. I hope this proves useful to anyone suffering from this sort of behaviour and hope that ASB becomes a thing of the past very soon.

Councillor Ken Robson

West Ward Independent