A council tenant has been awarded £100 compensation after Brighton and Hove City Council was found to have failed to respond to complaints about anti-social behaviour.
Tony Earnshaw, 61, of Rose Hill Court, Brighton, went to the Housing Ombudsman Service about Brighton and Hove City Council’s response to his complaints about a neighbour’s anti-social behaviour (ASB).
The housing ombudsman found that the council dealt with the anti-social behaviour in line with its policies but had gaps in records and a delay in responding to Mr Earnshaw’s complaints.
In its decision, the Housing Ombudsman Service that said the council may wish to review its anti-social behaviour case management process and contact Mr Earnshaw about his continuing concerns.
Mr Earnshaw’s case dates back to April last year when he complained to the council about how it had dealt with his complaint about anti-social behaviour from a neighbour in March.
Mr Earnshaw escalated the complaint last June because, according to the ombudsman, he said that the council had “not done anything” about his complaints and he wanted “compensation for its failure to stop the anti-social behaviour”.
The ombudsman awarded him £50 compensation to recognise that the council had added to the upset, distress and worry that Mr Earnshaw experienced during the complaint process and a further £50 to compensate for the delays.
Labour councillor Gill Williams, the council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “We acknowledge the ombudsman’s findings and accept their decision.
“While the investigation confirmed that our housing teams took appropriate action to respond to reports of anti-social behaviour, including working with the police and adult social care, issuing warnings, arranging mediation and providing additional security, we recognise that our record-keeping and complaint-handling processes did not meet the standards residents should expect.
“We regret the distress this caused the resident and have already taken steps to comply with the ombudsman’s order, including making the compensation payment.
“As a council we remain committed to a victim-centred approach to tackling anti-social behaviour and will continue to work closely with partner agencies to keep residents safe and supported.”
But did the council actually deal with the “problem” neighbour ??
No, but he got £100, didn’t you read the article?
No he assaulted me a few weeks ago
Best to go to the police with that. That’s beyond council if you’re being physically attacked.
£100 for a black eye for chopsing off, sounds like a bargain to me.
Just bang some hard techno on at 6am, soon get the message.
On a serious note the council probably should have probably looked into it
I think the article states that action was taken, but it wasn’t timely.
The council did not deal with the problem. They gave him a new flat in the same building, blamed his victims and the behaviour continues.
Councillor Gill Williams, what do the council do, when the tenant being victimised doesn’t want to go to the police? I’d like to know your views please.
AnneF, you’ll never get a reply. When the fine is £100, why would the council bother dealing with ASB cases. Answer, they don’t. Our ASB case is nearly 2 years old and getting worse, not better, with no plans in place for a resolution.
The fine and compensation are very much dependent on the scale and severity of the issue.
For me, the thing I’ve noticed is the lack of using interim measures to tackle ASB in the earlier stages, things like Community Protection Warnings, for example, to start creating a foundation to either correct the behaviours, or provide the evidence base often cited to be the barrier to progressing to more legal routes like Closure Orders and Evictions.
Otherwise, it just takes such a long time that ASB festers into something much worse than if it were nipped in the bud.