Partners for Improvement in Islington (Partners) on Friday successfully evicted a family from a property in Milner Square for persistent anti-social behaviour. Partners, the organisation which manages 6,500 Islington Council-owned street property homes, worked closely with police from St. Mary’s Safer Neighbourhood Team to secure the eviction.
The family had subjected neighbours to protracted and sustained anti-social behaviour, including noise disturbance, dog fouling, littering, youths congregating, foul language, verbal abuse and threats of physical violence.
In their efforts to tackle the family’s behaviour, Partners had previously obtained injunctions and an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) against individual family members, as well as an ASBO against the daughter’s boyfriend and 6 acceptable behaviour contracts with other residents and visitors to the house. When Partners continued to receive a large volume of complaints they successfully pursued the ultimate sanction of possession.
During the court possession hearing, one witness giving evidence described persistent intimidation by members of the family. Another reported regular homophobic abuse. A third told of an incident when he was terrorised and assaulted by a gang of youths including members of the family.
His Honour Judge Lamb QC said in his summing up: “the claimants have satisfied me that there are insufficient reasons to justify withholding an immediate order for possession”. He acknowledged that this would make a large family homeless and said that he had taken this into account.
Police and officers from Partners accompanied the bailiff to carry out the eviction on Friday 21 November.
The daughter of an elderly resident in the Square said of the eviction: “It’s great news. I will no longer be worrying about my father night after night.”
A Milner Square resident said: “Thanks to everybody at Partners who worked so hard on this - this is a great result.”
Another neighbour summed up: “Residents can now feel safe in their own home.”
David Westworth, Managing Director PFI Operations, Partners For Improvement in Islington, said:
"This is a very positive outcome for the community at Milner Square. We could not have achieved this without the help of many brave residents, and we want to say a huge thank you to them. At Partners we are determined to work with residents, the Police and Islington Council to tackle any form of anti-social behaviour and the detrimental effect it has on the lives of local people. We have a robust ASB policy and will do everything within the process of law to address anti-social behaviour of any kind."
Cllr James Kempton, Leader of Islington Council said:
"We will not tolerate this kind of persistent anti-social behaviour. I want to thank the witnesses who gave evidence in court. It is really hard to get the Judges to evict people. It must have taken a lot of courage for witnesses to come forward. But without their evidence we never could have achieved this result. It's a victory for people power and a prime example of what residents, the council and police can achieve when we work together."
