Kildare County Council says it is addressing anti social behaviour in estates
Kildare County Council says it is working to address anti-social behaviour in its housing areas on a number of fronts.
This follows a call for a study into tackling anti-social behaviour in County Kildare from Cllrs Ciara Galvin and Mark Leigh.
They said that the strategies used here and elsewhere would be examined with a view to “developing a holistic evidence-based strategy.”
Cllr Galvin told a KCC meeting on June 27 that the success of existing measures would be evaluated and residents association should be involved.
In a report, KCC official Annette Aspell said the local authority is required to publish a plan which defines anti-social behaviour and outlines the actions which will be taken to prevent and eliminate anti-social behaviour in council owned estates.
An anti-social behaviour forum was convened in 2020 to discuss the issue and the forum membership includes statutory and non-statutory organisations. The council’s housing department is currently drafting an estate management strategy and it is intended that this will be complementary to the anti-social behaviour strategy.
A further meeting of the Forum will be convened in 2022 to discuss this new strategy, prior to presentation to the councillors.
Ms Aspell also said KCC promotes and encourages tenant participation and involvement in council owned estates to achieve good estate management. The council employs five tenant liaison officers (TLO) and five community workers (CW) and a TLO and a CW is assigned to individual council areas, working in partnership.
The meeting also heard that certain local authority estates will be identified for intensive work and intervention.
The TLO engages with tenants to ensure compliance with the terms of the council’s tenancy agreement and, where required, implements the provisions of the anti-social behaviour strategy.
The CWs assist in ensuring tenant participation in estate development/ enhancement with a view to minimising anti- social behaviour.
KCC has funded a number of community programmes to tackle anti-social behaviour and these work with youth engagement initiatives, diverting young people who are at risk or are involved in anti-social or criminal behaviour.
These projects provide suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promoting civic responsibility and improve long term employability prospects. The aim of these programmes is to reduce impulsivity, improve empathy and improve pro-social behaviour.
From this year on the joint policing committee has arranged for individual council areas to allocate local property tax to create a dedicated fund for youth diversion programmes countywide.
The service providers will identify specific projects by application through the grants process. Once funding is approved and issued, a project completion report must be submitted on an annual basis to the JPC.