Last updated at 11:36, Friday, 12 December 2008

A CRACKDOWN on anti-social behaviour could see troublemaking tenants flung out on to the streets.

At the moment crack house closure laws can see drug users and dealers of Class A narcotics evicted and their homes boarded up.

But neighbours from hell could also find themselves homeless under new legislation being introduced this month.

Annie Holden, environmental health officer at Barrow Borough Council, explained how this meant troublemaking families or individuals could be turfed out of their homes. Ms Holden said each case would be assessed on its merit and the council would not necessarily be obligated to re-house them.

She said: “The closure order doesn’t terminate the agreement with a landlord, it just stops them living at that address for a period of three to six months.

“It’s not something we would do lightly and is the last thing on a list of other things we would have tried to do to resolve the situation.”

She said the council would only re-house those they thought to be vulnerable.

When asked if moving problem families from one area and placing them in another would just cause further problems, Ms Holden said: “It would be a problem of displacement if all we did was move people from one area to another.

“This gives them the message that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable. We want to push the fact that you have to behave if you want to live in communities.

“As well as the moving, tenants will have to get a new deposit together and rent up front, plus it can also be expensive for landlords who will have the problem of an empty property.”

Barrow Inspector Geoff Steele said: “Anti-social behaviour has been an issue across the county for some time and this marks a significant step forward in our attempts to reduce the effects of anti-social behaviour in South Cumbrian communities.

“We take this sort of behaviour extremely seriously and hope that these new powers will make members of the public more conscious of their actions and consider the affect they have on local communities.

“We aim to start using this order in December this year and think it will make a big difference to the way in which we deal with nuisance residents who cause problems in a community.”

First published at 11:49, Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk