Anti-Social Letting in Hermitage Park

Residents in Hermitage Park were telling me of a young girl who had been assigned to the flat above them. She was very young, and acted in ways that could be described as less than considerate to her neighbours: inviting people back to party until the early hours - noise in the morning. Residents complained of having to take days off because of lack of sleep.

The young girl had been housed there by Orchard and Shipman. A letting agency that, so I'm told, will house people on behalf of local government. And this tenant was part of a trial run. Apparently, the scheme works down South where people who are unable to find accomodation or who need new accomodation will be put somewhere by Orchard and Shipman on the Council's behalf.

Residents were angry because many who were affected by this scheme were not consulted, and the company were less than cooperative with residents' complaints. According to one resident: 'We were told that there were to be no people admitted into this flat who have had an ASBO served on them. This young girl had three!'

There are 24 000 people who have housing needs at the moment. So understanding this scheme as an attempt to alleviate the problem is easy. But, there has to be a much, much stricter contract between letting agency, council and tenant which will see any breaking of the lease terms acted on immediately. We cannot have people suffering for one year as happened in this case.

I believe that this scheme should only be proceeded with if the terms are re-drawn and that they can be monitored much more effectively.