People are so afraid of nightmare neighbours that they have asked councillors and housing officials not to take action in case it makes matter worse, a councillor said yesterday (Wednesday 14 December).
Conservative councillor Dawn Barnett, who represents Hangleton and Knoll ward, spoke out about anti-social behaviour at a housing management panel meeting at Hove Town Hall.
Councillor Barnett said: “Neighbours are terrified. They come to me – and I’ve never been allowed to go up there because the neighbours say to me, ‘They know what you’re up here for and it’ll make it worse for us.’”
She said that they have to speak by phone about the “huge problems” with drug dealers at the “top of Hangleton” terrifying their neighbours.
Councillor Barnett said: “Residents can hear the drug dealers ordering their drugs (saying), ‘I’ll have a kilo of this and so much of that.’
“It frightens the neighbours to think that’s going on in their house.
“We’ve got another generation of kids growing up with drug dealers like that. They might be paying the children to deliver them and we’ve got the next bunch of kids on the drugs scene.
“More needs to be done to get officers and police talking about it.”
Housing official Janet Dowdell said that people’s fear means that Brighton and Hove City Council’s hands are tied because court orders are needed to end some tenancies, close properties and take out injunctions.
She said: “We cannot go to court without a weight of evidence. I totally get why people don’t want to get up and say, ‘Yes, I’ll sign a witness statement.’
“They’re living next door to people who are drug dealing. That is the very thing that will get us in court quickly. The best evidence is a statement.
Ms Dowdell added: “We’ve had people saying, ‘I don’t want you to approach them.’
“So our hands are tied. We then can’t ask people about their behaviour and issue them with a warning.”
Another housing official Justine Harris told residents that there had been some success in east Brighton on the Craven Vale estate.
Neighbours there came forward and supplied witness statements, resulting in police closing a nightmare neighbour’s flat three months after they moved in.
Next month, a new anti-social behaviour policy is due to be presented to the Housing Committee for approval – a policy that Ms Harris described as “more victim-centred”.
The Housing Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Wednesday 18 January. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
