Anti-social Behaviour

If you need Tai Calon’s help to deal with nuisance neighbours, please get in touch with us on 0300 303 1717 or email us at talktous@taicalon.org

If you have been a victim of a crime or severe anti-social behaviour, you should contact the Police if it’s an emergency, dial 999. Otherwise, ring 101, for example, if you have witnessed a crime.

If you have witnessed crime or severe anti-social behaviour, you can call Crime Stoppers anonymously, 24 hours a day, on 0800 555 111.

If you would like independent information and to read more about what to expect, visit this independent website www.asbhelp.co.uk

What is anti-social or nuisance behaviour?

It is serious, persistent behaviour by someone capable of causing nuisance or annoyance or some other kind of serious harm :

It can be:

• Persistent and excessive levels of noise (At any time of day or night)
• Abusive, threatening or violent behaviour
• Vandalism
• Fly tipping
• Hate crime
• Intimidation/harassment

What isn’t ASB or nuisance behaviour

• Children’s arguments
• Staring or looking at someone
• One-off parties or BBQs
• Flytipping
• Carparking issues
• Straying pets
• Conflicting lifestyles or values. (Noise from expected household activities at reasonable hours such as vacuuming, washing machines, occasional DIY)

Here are some of the questions we may ask if you call to report anti-social behaviour

• Are you happy to give your details so we can update you? (Your details are kept confidential). If you wish to remain anonymous, this may limit how effective we can be and may be unable to take further action.
• Do you know the name & address of the offender?
• What has happened?
• When did it happen? (Date and Time)
• Is this a one-off incident?
• Have you complained about this before?

We will then ask some questions about the threat, such as:

• Have there been any threats?
• Is this a hate crime?
• Do you feel this is targeted toward you?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, we may advise you to contact the Police.

If this is a drug-related issue, we will ask if you have called the police or crime stoppers on 0800 555 111.

Depending on what is being reported, there may be some additional safeguarding questions such as:

• Have any other agencies been alerted
• Who lives and who doesn’t live there? E.g. how many children are believed to be there – names/ages/sex if known.

Parking issues:

Tai Calon will only get involved with vehicle problems where a vehicle, trailer or caravan has been abandoned or SORN’d with DVLA on land belonging to us. Our car parks are for everyday parking of vehicles and are not to be used as long-term storage. Caravans, trailers and un

If you need to contact us about experiencing ASB, we will work with you to agree on how to tackle it, report further issues and how to keep in touch. Action by us can involve home visits, letters and informal agreements and ensuring all parties who need support are offered.

In some cases, improvement does not happen very quickly and more time is needed to investigate and gather evidence to prove what is going on to see if further action is appropriate. This can take time, but we will explain how we can support you.

Sometimes ASB is also more severe and is potentially a crime and it may be that the matter should be reported to the Police as they are the best people to investigate. We will work with Police and other services where necessary to best help our communities.

In some cases, reported issues will need to have been tackled by other agencies first. The most common issue is illegal drugs. We do not have the power to search properties or people. It is the Police who have those investigation powers. Tai Calon can consider action where drugs & drug dealing have been in some way proven by Police, e.g. a conviction in criminal court.

Can I make an anonymous complaint?

All complaints are confidential. Without your permission, we would not disclose your complaint to a third party or the person about whom you are complaining. However, this may limit our investigation. If the complaint is anonymous, we may not have enough information or evidence to deal with it. Any legal action will require information to be used as evidence to help us to prove a case. Anonymous information isn’t always strong enough as evidence, which can sometimes lead to feelings that no one is doing anything.

Dog barking

It’s normal and natural for dogs to bark. But when barking happens often or goes on for a long time, it can be annoying and upsetting for neighbours.

Research into noise issues shows that problems are most likely to be solved when people discuss things calmly and work out a solution between them.

If it’s your dog that’s barking, what should you do?

Talking it over If the noise your dog is making is upsetting your neighbours, the first step is to consider talking things over with them. Stay calm and try to see it from their point of view: perhaps they’re working shifts or have got a baby or small children. Bear in mind that they might be worried about whether the dog is OK and remember, you might not know the serious problem if your dog is barking more when you’re not at home. Ask your neighbours to tell you exactly when your dog is barking and how long. Ask them to note when the barking happens if you’re out a lot. If you’re in, make a note yourself.

Think about using a webcam or video camera to find out what your dog is doing when you’re not there or try a ‘set-up’ – pretend you’re going out for the day, then wait outside the door to see your dog does. If your dog is noisy or distressed, we suggest speaking to a qualified & experienced animal behaviourist to see how you can help your pet relax.