Antisocial behaviour (ASB)

What antisocial behaviour (ASB) is

Antisocial behaviour (ASB) is behaviour which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm and distress to one person or a group of people.

There are three types of ASB:

• community - when a person or group causes annoyance, inconvenience, offence or suffering to the local community
• environmental - when a person's or group's actions impact the wider environment, such as public spaces or buildings
• personal - when a person or group targets someone or a specific group of people

ASB is not:

• being unable to park outside your house
• children and young people playing or gathering in communal areas
• civil disputes between neighbours (for example, boundary disputes)

The neighbourhood watch have guidance on recognising ASB.

Sign up for Thames Valley Alert to get crime alerts and updates on crime prevention in your local area.

Report ASB

You can:

• email the Building Communities Together Team, or 
• use the Thames Valley Police online report form, or 
• phone 101 (the police non-emergency number)

To support your report, you can make an ASB diary to record incidents and behaviours. The neighbourhood watch have a diary template you can use.

We will seek to resolve reports informally or, if appropriate, with the use of legal powers.

If you are a social housing tenant

If you are a tenant of a social housing provider or housing association, you should report issues to your landlord or housing officer.
 

Report other issues

You can report or get help with issues like graffiti, commercial nuisances and fly-tipping using the links below:

• graffiti removal
• report litter and fly tipping
• report an abandoned vehicle
• report a problem with parking on the road
• nuisance neighbours
• commercial nuisance
• smoke and bonfires
• dog fouling

You can also anonymously report public safety concerns to the police.

ASB case reviews

An ASB Case Review (previously known as a 'community trigger') gives victims of persistent ASB the opportunity to request a review of the actions taken by the agencies involved, when they feel that the actions taken have not been adequate to resolve the problem. They came into effect in 2014 under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

An ASB Case Review is not used to:

• report ASB in the first instance
• report general acts of crime, including hate crime
• make a specific complaint about the handling of a case
   

How to request a review

To request a review there must have been:

• at least three reports from one person, within a six month period,
  or 
• five reports from different people, within a six month period, of a problem that is not currently being investigated

You must have reported ASB within one month of the alleged behaviour taking place, and you must make the application for the review within 6 months of the report of anti social behaviour.

The ASB Case Review can be used by a victim of anti-social behaviour or any person acting on behalf of a victim, for example a family member, friend, carer or professional person, with the victims consent.
 

If you meet the criteria above, you can complete the  ASB Case Review Referral Form [454KB] .

Please give as much detail as possible to ensure that agencies have all the information required to make the initial enquiries.

The process

Once we receive the application form, we will send acknowledgement within 2 working days.

Agencies will then decide whether the threshold has been met. The decision will be verified by the Building Communities Together Team and/or Area Commander for West Berkshire and the applicant will be notified of the decision.

If the threshold is met a case review will be undertaken by partner agencies. Agencies will share information relating to the case, review what action has previously been taken and decide whether additional actions are possible. Recommendations and an action plan may be made.

The applicant will be informed of the outcome of the review. 

The ASB Case Review process will take 30 days from start to finish. It starts from the time the request is made by the applicant and ends when the outcome of the review has been communicated back to the applicant. (The 30 day period does not include the time period involved for any actions suggested in any action plan to take effect. The outcome of the case review could be a recommendation of an action plan set over a range of future dates).

Previous reviews