A closure order has been served on a house in Salford after residents terrorised the local community. Salford City Council applied for the three month premises closure order on the address on Duncan Street, Salford, supported by Greater Manchester Police. The order, brought under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, was granted at Manchester Magistrates’ Court in August 2012.
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This is the first time this type of order has been used in Greater Manchester area since powers, under section 118 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, were introduced to allow a court to temporarily close any premises where there are complaints of persistent anti-social behaviour.
The property on Duncan Street is a house of multiple occupation with ten available rooms, and a high turnover of residents. The issues at the address dated back to 2009, but became more frequent from July 2011.
The anti-social behaviour team received reports of residents and their guests drinking at the front of the property, shouting, arguing, fighting, shop lifting from the local shop and even stealing from other residents at the address. There were also reports of rubbish being dumped around the property, dogs allowed to roam around and on one occasion of a dog attacking a passerby.
To try to resolve the problems at the property, letters were sent out and a meeting was called with all tenants to warn them of the implications of their behaviour. When none of the tenants attended anti-social behaviour officers then tried to work with the owner of the property to resolve the problem, but when this failed they took the decision to apply for a closure order.
Residents at the propertywere forced to move out of the address immediately.
Councillor David Lancaster, Deputy City Mayor of Salford with responsibility for Community Safety, said: “A troublemaking group of residents like this can terrorise a local community. In this particular case local residents were left feeling threatened and unsafe in their own community, which is absolutely unacceptable.
“The work the anti-social behaviour team has done will move these individuals out of this house, meaning they can no longer pose a threat to this area. I hope this will also make the tenants see the error of their ways and make sure there is not a repeat of this behaviour in future.”
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