About time too.....!!!!
Posted by on the 8th May 2009
From BBC.CO.UK
A woman has been evicted from a privately-rented home by a council after neighbours complained of anti-social behaviour by her visitors.
Rhonnda Cynon Taf council said the case against Michelle Neal, 38, was the first premises closure order in Wales.
The end-of-terrace house in Aberdare has been boarded up after magistrates heard weeks of abuse, threats and violence led to six arrests.
A neighbour said: "It made our life absolute hell."
The magistrates court hearing last Friday heard neighbours had complained of continual anti-social behaviour as soon as Neal began renting the Chapel Row property from a private landlord in February this year.
Police were called out 20 times, and a list of 29 incidents was put before magistrates after the council sought a Premise Closure Order, a power which became available to local authorities in December 2008.
I phoned the police so many times I've lost count
Neighbour, Mr Davies
Magistrates were told incidents included loud arguing and shouting, with demands for money, kicking of doors, punching windows, groups of young people outside drinking alcohol and blocking the entrance to houses, fighting and loud music.
A male visitor urinated over the footpath to another house and exposed himself, the court heard.
One neighbour, who asked to be named only as Mr Davies, said he and his wife made numerous calls to police.
He said: "There was shouting, fighting in the street. I've been verbally threatened, then it escalated to threats to damage our property and to burn our house down and kill our pets."
Anyone who tries to enter the end-of-terrace property faces jail and a fine
The court was told a sofa was set alight outside the property.
Mr Davies, 28, said the same night the male visitor was arrested for allegedly exposing himself, the family's car was attacked and £2,000 damage was caused.
He said: "I phoned the police so many times I've lost count. There was one occasion they were fighting outside the house. They threw a glass. It smashed centimetres from my head. It has just been like that."
Mr Davies was one of those who gave evidence against Neal, who faced three charges at Aberdare Magistrates' Court relating to allowing the property to be the focus of persistent disorder and nuisance.
David Jones, head of public safety and protection at Rhondda Cynon Taf council, said the local authority had reluctantly taken out the landmark closure order due to the "extreme circumstances".
'Disgraceful behaviour'
He said: "This is very much a measure of last resort. The visitors to the property were causing such problems to neighbours we acted to return that neighbourhood to quiet normality.
"Our officers tried to get the landlord to intervene but he was reluctant to do so. We would much prefer to deal with this through persuasion and mediation, but the landlord did not want to be involved with all of this."
Insp Steve Meek of South Wales Police said: "This is an extremely serious case and one which I hope will send out a clear message to all communities that we simply will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.
"Should this occur elsewhere then the culprits can rest assured that they will feel the full force of the law."
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i dont know if anybody on here lives by me but if you do you will probably know who i am talking about here.... but we have been having trouble in our street for about 2 and a half years.
it started off 4 doors away from me where a young girl in a 1 bedroom cynon taff house spent endless days and nights with a house full of youngsters, they were playing loud music, racing round the streets in the cars, running around the streets screaming, shouting and swearing and that was all during the early hours of the morning. they used to jump over our garden walls and abuse the neighbours. after loads of phonecalls to the police and rhondda cynon taff they give them notice to quit and on their last day there they smashed the house up and flooded it then left.
after this 2 doors from that house a private landlord rented a house to young boys who again play loud music, run round the streets screaming, shouting and swearing and abusing neighbours.... police have been involved plenty of times with these now and eventually they got a warrent/court order to remove anything from the house that made a noise (tv, hi-fi etc...). the boys and landlord were fined and the boys ended up on a curfew and were told they were not allowed more that X amount of people in their house at any one time and to be honest we dont hear much from them anymore.
opposite them there is the same problem but the 2 youngsters who live there have a little baby so where are social services????
there is also another house which is linked to the other 2 houses where the son or sons are now on tag.
i grew up in this area (just 2 streets away) and have always loved it and found it so quiet untill the last few years... its getting hard work now.... i hate it when the other half goes to work on a night shift because i'm left home alone with the baby and just dont feel safe anymore.
i work myself and work 12 hour shifts and its hard work when we get woken up all through the night and have to do a 12 hour shift after no sleep.
cant they just build a run down estate on the top of a mountain and put them all up there put of the way.
What have the mountains done to deserve that? People go there for peace and quiet and don't want that shattered by a gang of herberts. I suppose the root of the problem needs to be addressed as the issue with eviction is that it's just shunting the problem from one area to another. It's a never ending cycle.
We had "problem neighbours" a few years ago.
They were evicted from another council and ended up re-locating here, they were re-homed by Aberdare council and totally destroyed the house they were allocated, after they were once again evicted they had a privte landlords house six doors from my home, They again destroyed the house and were AGAIN evicted.
They were given a new council house by the council that first evicted them.
I say if you are evicted once there should be policy in place that says, The council should not rehome these wasters.