What's Respect about?

The Respect drive is a cross-Government strategy to tackle bad behaviour and nurture good - and so help create the modern culture of respect.

It is about central government, local agencies, local communities and ultimately every citizen working together to build a society in which we can respect one another - where anti-social behaviour is rare and tackled effectively, and communities can live in peace together.

It's not about going back to the past or returning to the day's of 'knowing your place'.

" It's about nurturing and, where needed, enforcing a modern culture of respect, which the majority of people want.
" It's about showing tolerance, acceptance as common decency towards the people around us - our family, friends and peers, people who are older or younger than us, people from different walks of life or who follow different cultures or religions.
" It's about being considerate of the consequences of our behaviour for others.

Making offensive and threatening remarks, dumping litter and urinating in the street is clearly inconsiderate or disrespectful by any definition.

Respect or the lack of it does more than affect us as individuals. Understanding and adopting a code and is why the government is so committed to working with the public to promote a new culture of respect.

Broader, deeper, further

The Respect drive, as laid out in the Respect Action Plan, builds on what has already been achieved in combating anti-social behaviour and goes broader, further and deeper to tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour and prevent the next generation becoming involved. It recognises the importance of early intervention in families, homes and schools to prevent children and young people who are showing signs of problems from getting any worse.

There is also a contained emphasis on enforcement and action. The police, local authorities and other agencies will be encouraged to use the full range tools and powers to deal with anti-social behaviour. Communities will also be encouraged to speak out and demand a co-ordinated response to problems they are facing.

Key measures of the Respect drive include:

" A new approach to tackling problem families through intensive family intervention programmes.

" A wide-ranging programme to address poor parenting. Additional investment will be available to fund parenting programmes across the country.

" Strengthening communities through more responsive public services. Local services will be encouraged to hold regular face the people sessions.

" Improving behaviour and attendance in schools. Targeted action on persistent truants and a range of new measures to tackle poor behaviour in schools.

" The funding of constructive activities for young people such as youth intervention projects and sports programmes

Anti-social behaviour

What is anti-social behaviour?

The term anti-social behaviour covers a wide range of selfish and unacceptable activity that can blight the quality of community life.
Terms such as 'nuisance', 'disorder' and 'harassment' are also used to describe some of this behaviour.

Examples include:

" Nuisance neighbours
" Yobbish behaviour and intimidating groups taking over public spaces
" Vandalism, graffiti and fly-posting
" People dealing and buying drugs on the street
" People dumping rubbish and abandoned cars
" Begging and anti-social drinking
" The misuse of fireworks
" Reckless driving of mini-motorbikes.

A legal definition of anti-social behaviour is found in the Crime and Disorder Act 1988. The Act describes anti-social behaviour as 'acting in an
anti-social manner as a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as the complainant'.

Why is it important?

Anti-social behaviour ruins lives. It doesn't just make life unpleasant; it prevents the renewal of disadvantaged areas and creates an environment where more serious crime can take hold.

Anti-social behaviour is a major issue in some of the UK's more deprived or disadvantaged communities.
Anti-social behaviour is also expensive. It is estimated to cost the British taxpayer £3.4bn a year.

Why does it happen?

There are a variety of factors which increase the risk of anti-social behaviour. The more of these which are present, the more likely someone is to become involved in anti-social behaviour.

Parenting
Poor parenting skills, a weak parent/child relationship and a family history of problem behaviour.

School
Truancy, exclusion and unchallenged bad behaviour.

Community life
Living in deprived areas with disorder and neglect, lack of community spirit, living in areas with an already high-level of anti-social behaviour.

Individual factors
Drug and alcohol abuse, alienation and early involvement in anti-social behaviour.
There are a range of supportive interventions available which can help individuals and/or their parents and families change their own behaviour and enable them to tackle some of the underlying problems.

What action can be taken?
Anti-social behaviour causes harm to individuals and the community and must be stopped as soon as possible, when the minimum harm has been caused.

The goal of any action is to:
" protect victims, witnesses and the community
" enable the perpetrator to understand the consequences of their behaviour
" make sure the perpetrator changes their behaviour.

Measures that can be used by the police and other agencies include:
" warning letters and interviews, contracts and agreements
" fixed penalty notices and penalty notices for disorder
" parenting orders, individual support orders, noise abatement notices, injunctions, dispersal powers and anti-social ..behaviour orders (ASBOs)
" 'crack house' closure orders
" possession proceedings against a tenant.

Action may be initiated by a number of agencies including the police, local authorities, registered social landlords, housing trusts and youth offending teams.

Types of anti-social behaviour
" Most types of anti-social behaviour fit into one of three categories:
" street problems nuisance
" neighbours environmental crime.

These categories cover a wide range of conduct, ranging from groups of youths behaving aggressively in shopping precincts, to neighbours who don't clean up after their dogs, to the misuse of fireworks.
This section explains what is being done to combat the different types of anti-social behaviour.

Street problems
Intimidation, begging, public drug dealing, and the reckless driving of mini-motorbikes are all street problems that fall under the definition of anti-social behaviour.

Measures available to tackle street problems include:
" allowing the police to designate areas where they can disperse groups who are or may act anti-socially
" fines of £50 or £80 for a range of disorder-related offences
" seizing and crushing of mini-motorbikes when these are unlicensed, uninsured or driven in a reckless manner
" use of anti-social behavior orders (ASBOs) and injunctions to curb the behaviour of the anti-social minority
" parenting orders, which require parents to take responsibility for their child(ren)'s actions.
Nuisance neighbours

Nuisance neighbours have a big impact on the community around them. Just one or two families can ruin other people's lives because of their intimidation, harassment and criminal damage. Rowdiness, excessive noise and animal-related problems are all examples of anti-social behaviour caused by nuisance neighbours.
There are a range of powers that can be used to tackle nuisance neighbours:
" neighbours who make too much noise can be fined up to £5,000 or have noisy equipment removed if warnings are ..ignored
" local authorities, the police and social landlords can now apply for anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) and ..injunctions to curb an individual's anti-social behaviour
" social landlords can apply to the courts for a demoted tenancy or even evict tenants
" properties in which class A drugs are supplied and used can be closed by the police.

Environmental anti-social behaviour
Environmental crime and anti-social behaviour, such as graffiti and fly-tipping, has a huge impact on our communities and on how happy we are in them. It can ruin public spaces and is expensive to clean up.
In the most recent British Crime Survey, respondents named vandalism and property damage as the most serious anti-social behaviour issues in their area.

Environmental crime can include:
" fly-tipping - dumping household or commercial rubbish in private or communal areas
" littering - deliberately dropping litter on the streets
" graffiti - spray-painting or otherwise marking private property or communal areas like the sides of bus-shelters ..and houses
" vandalism - damaging private property or communal facilities like telephone boxes or play-ground equipment

Measures already in place to tackle environmental anti-social behaviour include:
" giving local authorities more power - to take action against fly-tippers and vandals
" restricting sale of spray paint - it's an offence for retailers to sell spray paint to anyone under the age of 16.
Strengthening communities
Most people care deeply about the neighbourhood and community in which they live, and many play an active role in making their neighbourhood a better place to live.

Drug and Anti-social issues NEED DEBATE

If you look back 4 or 5 years ago and compare the drug and antisocial behaviour activities as they are today, one could say we do not have much of a problem. This estate as far as drugs, gangs, and antisocial behaviour is one of the most improved areas in Preston. That is not to say further improvements cannot be made and will be made with the help of the Police, Community Gateway, other agencies and of course the most importantly 'you' the residents.

We as a community need to go that one step further, we are looking for your help to put pressure on the tiny minority that are still creating problems, we still get the odd window broken and then another broken in retaliation nothing major but these people need to understand we as a community need these antisocial actions to stop.

I don't want to be criticised for bringing down the area but one has to be realistic, we do have the odd address that are the cause of anti-social behaviour and other that that rely on drugs, we do still have a few people who actually deal in drugs in a minor way, not on the scale as it was, but still there are a few who fortunately are now tending to keep a comparatively low key and many people will not realise they are around.

The ICA want to create a debate on this issue, and want to know your opinions, I was speaking to one or two residents a few days ago and the conversation came round to 'if a person is taking class A drugs in his or her home and not causing any serious antisocial drug related problems do we ignore them or do we want them to either move on or change.

The ICA stance is that if anyone is on class A drugs on this estate we will do what ever we can to bring them to justice as this is a criminal offence.

There is no place for drugs where there are children and youths who can so easily targeted by any small time dealer who profits in the misery of others.

The ICA will support any class A drug user if they are on a government drug rehabilitation scheme or if the drug user intends trying to give up the habit.

Drugs users are they a victim or just another menace to our society

In the beginning a drug user can be classed as and quite rightly so as a 'victim' but unless this victim has the courage and support how long does it takes for them to become an antisocial problem for the neighbourhood as has happened in the past.

You can feel reassured that the improvement that has taken place will be maintained and doubly reassured that with your help and with the support of partners intend to ensure that you as residents see these tiny pockets of antisocial people learn that antisocial behaviour is not acceptable.

One other point I must make is that none of the ICA committee can be classed as experts on drugs or anti-social behaviour so this article is 'just our opinion'. What we can say is that over the past few years we have seen the misery it creates not only to the victim but also to the neighbourhood.