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Havebury Housing Partnership
Anti-social behaviour and hate crimes

Anti-social behaviour and hate crimes

We want your home and neighbourhood to be a safe place to live.

We understand the impact anti-social behaviour (ASB) and hate crimes can have on you and your family, and we play an active role in addressing this. As well as working with partner agencies such as the police and local councils, we are also a member of the Western Suffolk Community Safety Partnership, working strategically to tackle criminal and anti-social behaviour across the region.

You can find out more about our ASB performance on our monthly performance page.

 

What is anti-social behaviour?

Examples of ASB include:

  • Intimidation of neighbours and others, including threatened or actual violence.
  • Persistent rowdy behaviour such as shouting, swearing, and fighting.
  • Abusive behaviour aimed at causing fear to an individual or community.
  • Using or threatening to use a property for an unlawful and/or immoral purpose, including drug use or dealing.
  • Vandalism and arson.
  • Loud and persistent noise not associated with the general use of a property or communal area.
  • Dogs persistently barking.
  • Environmental acts including; fly-tipping, dog fouling, vandalism, arson, and graffiti.

What isn’t anti-social behaviour?

If you are experiencing criminal behaviour, contact the police.

  • Normal day-to-day activities – children playing for example, or normal household noise such as washing machines or vacuuming.
  • Clash of lifestyles – where a person who works night shifts, may be disturbed by daytime activities from a neighbour.
  • One-off activities, such as a party, or where a dog may bark intermittently, if someone knocks on a door, for example.
  • Actions which amount to people not being pleasant to each other but are not sufficiently serious to justify our involvement, such as social media activity, hoax and nuisance calls, parking disputes and gossip.

What is a hate crime?

Hate crimes, as defined by the Equality Act, are any crimes that are perceived to be targeted at a person because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s:

  • Disability
  • Race or ethnicity
  • Religion or belief
  • Sexual orientation
  • Transgender identity
  • Age discrimination
  • Alternative subculture (characterised by a strong sense of collective identity and a set of group-specific values and tastes that typically centre on distinctive style/clothing, make-up, body art and music preferences)

Hate crimes can be committed against a person or a property, and can be expressed in many forms, and may include:

  • Verbal abuse
  • Assault
  • Vandalism
  • Graffiti or offensive literature
  • Threatening behaviour
  • Disputes via social media

We will take a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of hate crime. As part of our multi-agency approach in dealing with hate crime and ASB we will, where appropriate, report hate incidents and hate crime to the Police.

 

Resolve

RESOLVE Certified member - no background

We are dedicated to continuously improving the way we manage ASB to ensure our residents and the communities in which they live remain safe. We are also proud to be certified members of Resolve. You can find out more about them here.

  • How do I report anti-social behaviour?

    In many cases, it is better if you speak to your neighbours directly about this – they may not be aware of the impact what they are doing is having – loud music, for example.

    You can call our Neighbourhood and Estates team on 0300 3300 0900, selecting options 3 and 1 or you can enter extension number 7333 when prompted. You can email the team on myarea@havebury.com.

    You can report fly-tipping and abandoned vehicles on myHavebury.

    If the behaviour is criminal, contact 101, or 999 if there’s a risk to life.

    Or you can complete the online form below

    • DD slash MM slash YYYY
    • We may need to speak to your neighbour about your complaint, have you thought about how this might affect your relationship with your neighbour, and are you happy for us to do this if we need to?
    • It may be necessary to open an ASB case to keep track of actions and incidents, in order to do this we would require regular updates from you usually in the form of log sheets. Would you like these log sheets sent to your email address provided?
    • If you are submitting log sheets to this form please do so here.
      Max. file size: 32 MB.

    Please note that we collect and process your personal data when you fill in this form. For more information about your rights, click here.

  • What will you do to resolve this?

    If your complaint is classed as anti-social behaviour or nuisance we will open an investigation and agree on a course of action with you.

    This will include producing an action plan with certain steps that we will take, and working with you and the person who is causing the anti-social behaviour as part of our investigation.

    We will review the case on a routine basis and contact you each time to agree on the next course of action.

    Our investigation and the action we take will be specific to the case and we will use the many tools we have to tackle anti-social behaviour and nuisance. This can include a combination of warnings, legal interventions and support from agencies working with the individual is necessary. We also have to ensure we offer the appropriate support and help to individuals.

    We will not close a case without agreeing this with you but this could be because the problem has stopped, the situation has improved or there is not enough evidence to support further action being taken.

  • How long will it take?

    It will depend on the case and type of ASB, amongst other things.

    We are committed to tackling anti-social behaviour but there are no specific timescales for anti-social behaviour being resolved as there are so many factors to consider and every case is individual. We commit to maintaining the action plan we agree with you, keeping you updated regularly, and being honest with you about the next steps and resolution.

    We will close our investigation when there is no further action to take. This could be because the problem has stopped, the situation has improved or there is insufficient evidence. We maintain records of all investigations in case the problem starts up again and can always reopen a case if we need to.

  • What is an ASB Case Review (previously Community Trigger)

    The ASB, Crime and Policing Act 2014 brought in measures to give victims and communities more say in the way their ASB reports are dealt with.

    The ASB Case Review (previously known as Community Trigger) is a process which allows members of the community, or advocates on their behalf, to ask for a review of the responses to their complaints of anti-social behaviour. This applies regardless of which agency is investigating and managing the ASB case.

    If you meet your local authority’s threshold for an ASB Case Review (usually three separate ASB reports in a six-month period), they’ll arrange a meeting with you and the key agencies dealing with the ASB to review the case. At this meeting, an independent panel will listen to your concerns. They’ll also hear what the different agencies involved have done to tackle the ASB. The panel then make recommendations on further action to improve things for you. ASB Case Reviews are taken very seriously, and all agencies involved are fully expected to act on any recommendations they receive.

    The use of an ASB Case Review does not interfere with your right to follow our internal complaints procedure; both processes can run at the same time. You can see more information about this here.

    More information on this can be found here, with ASB help being a national body which helps support victims of ASB. As this is provided by an external party, we therefore cannot be held accountable for any inaccuracies that are contained within this


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