Focus on anti-social behaviour

10.57.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 22nd Oct 2009

At this week's Full Council meeting the Lib Dems focused on the issue of anti-social behaviour in Norwich.

The Liberal Democrats asked whether everything is being done, by the Labour controlled City Council, to tackle ASB and whether the various bodies set up to deal with it are communicating with one another and co-ordinating their efforts. This question came in the light of a recent Evening News report that 600,000 ASB incidents a year in Norfolk go unreported.

Cllr Judith Lubbock asked 'Anti social behaviour comes in many forms from abusive neighbours to noisy scooters. There is no doubt that the ability to deal effectively and efficiently with anti social behaviour is one of the most pressing priorities for the public, the police and the council. Yet there is evidence of under reporting in this area, perhaps through confusion about who and when to contact the varying organisations or perhaps because of lack of confidence that anything will be done.

Given that there are a number of different bodies working to tackle anti social behaviour - Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Police Community Support Officers, Council Wardens, Council's Abate Team and Councillors - and a number of different ways of reporting anti social behaviour please can the Portfolio Holder tell me how all these bodies are co-ordinated and how they communicate with one another?'

Cllr Lubbock commented "There is an ASB hotline and there is the police 0845 number, how are the reports shared between the 2 bodies? What is needed is an effective joined up approach that residents can have confidence in when reporting ASB."

A full list of questions and answers from the meeting can be found here: http://www.norwich.gov.uk/webapps/meeting_minutes/Meetings.asp?meeting=specific&mid=2039&id=