One in seven people across the country have been a victim of anti-social behaviour and Teignbridge’s community safety team wants local people to help them focus their efforts on tackling the forms that affect residents most.

Next week – national anti-social behaviour (ASB) awareness week – gives the team the chance to highlight some of the work they do throughout the year to combat all different types of antisocial behaviour, and help increase people’s awareness of the problem, the rights of victims and what can be done to tackle it.

And on Wednesday, as part of a national Big ASB Conversation designed to encourage people to talk about anti-social behaviour, the council will be asking local residents via its social media channels to tell them what  causes them the most problems – whether it’s groups hanging around on the streets, drink-related or inconsiderate behaviour, criminal damage, vandalism or graffiti, loud music or other noise, drug use, verbal abuse, nuisance neighbours, out of control or dangerous dogs or something else.

Executive Member for Homes and Communities, Cllr Lin Goodman-Bradbury is asking residents to take part and so help focus the team’s efforts on the anti-social behaviour that has the most impact in our communities? “We recognise the impact antisocial behaviour can have on our residents’ quality of life and we want to concentrate our resources on the things that affect people the most,” she said.

“As part of the South Devon and Dartmoor Community Safety Partnership, we work together with partner agencies to find the most effective way of responding to the problems antisocial behaviour causes.

“We want to make sure that the voices of those affected are clearly heard and that we can take the necessary action to make them feel safer.”

Over the past year the council’s community safety team has taken action in 123 ASB cases, jointly investigating 70 per cent of them with the Police, resulting in 22 community protection warnings being issued and 56 people being written to about their behaviour.

Next week the team is also joining the police, social housing providers, environmental health specialists, mental health and homeless preventions teams and social care to discuss current cases causing the most concerns and to identify any additional action that could be taken.

Cllr Goodman-Bradbury added: “No one wants to stop people having a good time, but it’s really important that we’re aware of the impact anti-social behaviour can have on our communities, the stress and anxiety it can cause.”

Organised nationally by Resolve, ASB Awareness Week is backed by the Home Office, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and local government across the country.

Part of the week’s activities is to raise awareness to victims of persistent anti-social behaviour of their right to activate an ASB Case review if they have reported a problem at least three times.