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ASBOs not the answer

Chris Jones
24/ 4/2008

A FORMER youth leader has criticised agencies he says has abandoned residents in one of the toughest parts of town.

Eric Noi, a former councillor and programme manager with the Youth Inclusion Project, has criticised Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) and other agencies for failing to deal with the root of anti-social behaviour problems on the Barleyfield Walk estate.

He says the decision to issue ASBOs to local troublemakers was a move that could have been avoided had action been taken to tackle anti-social behaviour sooner - and says he even suggested a plan to set up this provision last summer.

But RBH has defended itself, saying a multiple agency approach has been taken in the area, including involving youth services before the decision to proceed with ASBOs was made.

Mr Noi said: "It should never have been allowed to get this far. There should have been an early intervention programme in place and teams down there to prevent things getting so bad.

"Things have just been left and left to get in the state they are and now they're giving out ASBOs."

Mr Noi, who now works as a consultant, says he unsuccessfully tried to initiate new projects in the area last summer.

He added: "I worked for seven years as a YIP programme manager and we set up projects then in Barleyfield even though it was out of our remit, and in that time we had some of the best results on crime prevention ever.

"We offered to start similar projects again last summer as we had a proven track record of success, but despite some positive feedback we couldn't make any progress."

Mr Noi says issuing ASBOs is not the solution to the estate's problems, and community-based projects are needed to provide youngsters with alternatives with different options in the long term.

"After this I expect there to be a fanfare of activity and photo-opportunities there from now, but there needs to be long term solutions to these problems.

"People need to be asking where is their tax money being spent, and why it’s not being spent in places like this."

Debbie Hopwood, principal housing manager for Middleton and Heywood, said: "It is the policy of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing to involve all agencies of the council and their partners before progressing cases to ASBOs.

"In respect of orders already obtained, agreed procedures were followed and youth intervention services were involved at a much earlier stage.

"In a small number of cases, ASBOs are a useful tool to combat anti-social behaviour but are not sought lightly or before all other methods of resolving problem areas have been exhausted."

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