OAPs living in fear of thugs

David Knox 1607 - 1607 • Published 6 Mar 2009 12:30 0 Comments

SYSTEMATIC failings across Tweeddale and the rest of the Borders are to blame for teenage thugs being housed beside old and vulnerable people.

The Peeblesshire News highlighted the problem last month when we revealed 17-year-old Paul Laurie had made the life of his elderly neighbours a living hell since arriving at Innerleithen"s Horsburgh Street.

Laurie, who is now subject to two ASBOs and a visitor ban, moved into the first-floor flat last August.

Pensioners live below and around the property with young families further along the street.

But for months the once quiet street has been inflicted to gangs of teenagers congregating at Laurie"s flat and having parties into the early hours of the morning.

Many of the neighbours have had items thrown at the their windows, been targeted for abuse, and had condoms and sanitary items left strewn across their gardens.

Laurie"s loutish behaviour has been well documented - and we have now been told of similar problems in Peebles and Galashiels.

One local woman, who we agreed not to name, told the Peeblesshire News: 'I am aware that Scottish Borders Housing Association has a statutory duty to house persons under the terms of the Homelessness Scotland Act.

'However the legislation clearly states that it is at their discretion as to where they house.

'This youth has breached almost every aspect of SBHA"s own tenancy agreement, they could and should be using their own legal power to evict.'

The daughter of another pensioner who has suffered because of a noisy teenage neighbour says she is threatening to take the housing association to court.

She told us: 'There must be a large number of people facing the same situation through no fault of their own. Their lives are being destroyed by landlords failing to apply the rules and failing miserably to take into account the effects of housing antisocial people beside law abiding citizens.'

We also spoke to an elderly gentleman in the Rosetta area of Peebles who claims his calls for help to Scottish Borders Council have been ignored.

And that he"s suffered for over a year with noisy teenagers.

Scottish Borders Housing Association is one of several social landlords operating throughout the region.

And they all must comply with a Section 5 referral which gives priority to anyone classed as homeless.

But the supporting information from social workers on each of these referrals doesn"t always highlight impending problems.

Janice Cambridge, chief executive of SBHA, said she was extremely sympathetic to the cases we highlighted to her.

She explained: 'If Scottish Borders Council decides that an individual or a family is to be a Section 5 Homeless referral, and they send the referral to SBHA, then we must offer that applicant the first property we have which becomes vacant and meets their needs.

'Where the council is aware that the homeless individual or family has special characteristics or needs which would necessitate them being houses in a very specific type of house, for example in sheltered housing, or well away from older people, then this should be highlighted in the Section 5 referral paperwork.

'It has to be said, however, that the council"s task is not easy as people don"t come along labelled as anti-social.'

The chief executive wouldn"t reveal if the troublesome tenants we named had their anti-social behaviour highlighted before being houses, because of confidentiality reasons.

She added: 'SBHA"s staff are trying to be as supportive as possible of residents who are being adversely affected, and we are also taking all reasonable steps which are open to us to bring the problems to an end.'

Scottish Borders Council have just recently granted £274,000 towards a new supported four-flatted homeless hostel in Galashiels for troublesome tenants to be housed.

Their social work department wouldn"t comment on individual clients and cases, but a spokeswoman said: 'We recognise that some young people, whose lives are chaotic, struggle to cope when they move into a tenancy and we work with a number of other agencies to bring in support where needed.

'Elected members identified the need for accommodation with in-house support specifically to meet the needs of these young people.

'This new type of accommodation will offer a more supportive and stable environment for young people.'

Anyone having problems with rowdy neighbours can contact the Antisocial Behaviour Unit - which is based at 3 Exchange Street, Jedburgh - on 08000285711.

Tweet

This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 06 Mar 09

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @peeblesnews