‘Slap an Asbo on us until the yobs get lost’

Dozens of flats targeted in plan

By Claire Brooks and Catherine Shanks

Published:

FED UP: Gardner Road residents, from left, Ian Sheriffs, Edward Jamieson, Jim Clark, Norman Reid and Irene Clifton.

ANTICS: Gardner Road in Kincorth is plagued by noisy neighbours.

LOUD music blasting out until 4am, all-night parties spilling out onto the streets, empty booze bottles at every corner.

This isn’t Ibiza.

It’s a regular night for Gardner Road in Kincorth and angry council tenants have had enough.

They claim noisy neighbours keep them up all night with their wild antics.

And today a furious city councillor demanded an Asbo be slapped on four tenements until the perpetrators give up.

The move comes after Cllr Neil Cooney met residents and Aberdeen City Council’s housing manager Graham Souter.

Cllr Cooney said the order would be slapped on four blocks of flats running from numbers 102 to 148.

Tenants claim they have been forced to endure three years of sleepless nights. Today they said they backed the move to bring in an Asbo on the tenements.

Concerns about drug and alcohol abuse were also raised.

Resident Norman Reid said the sleepless nights had left him shattered.

He said: “This has been a problem for about three years and I had to do something to try to put an end to it. Hopefully this will make a difference because I drive a crane and the sleepless nights were starting to affect me at work.”

Mr Reid’s boss, Ian Duncan of Jewson, even wrote a letter to the council after becoming concerned for his employee.

He said: “At times Norman has been coming into work like a half-shut knife because he can’t get to sleep.

“He drives a crane for us so I wrote a letter to the council because if it continues it could become a health and safety risk.”

Gardner Road resident Gina Forbes said: “We’ve been getting a lot of trouble with the neighbours making so much noise. People can’t even sleep because of it.

“There’s parties going on until 4am and people are out on the streets, lying on the grass shouting.

“I'm quite deaf – but even I can still hear what’s going on.”

Cllr Cooney said they were in the process of gathering statements and evidence from tenants. These will then be passed on to the council’s legal department who will set out the Asbo conditions before applying to the courts to get them enforced.

Mr Cooney admitted it was “new territory” to get an Asbo placed on dozens of flats in one street.

He said the Asbo conditions would mean the troublemakers won’t be able to have loud music blaring onto the streets, more than three people in their flat, shout out of windows or have parties which will spill out onto the street.

The Asbo would cover individual flats as well as communal areas.

Cllr Cooney said he had received between 50 and 60 letters of complaint about the noise levels in less than a year.

He said the Asbo would not affect those who were not making trouble.

He said: “The reason why we want the Asbo to be put on the four blocks as a whole is because it will cover every aspect of the area – the stairwells, the landings and the garden areas at the front and back of the blocks.

“If it is just a single Asbo on an individual, things like that would not be covered, which is the reason why these late-night parties are taking place out on the street.”

Councillor Kate Dean was critical of the move.

She said: “I would question the wisdom and legality of such a move. It seems to be tarring everyone with the same brush.”

A city council spokeswoman said: “We do take each case seriously and we do look into complaints and we do try to take action. If something is worthy of pursuing an Asbo for, we will consider pursuing action.”

A Grampian Police spokeswoman said: “We are aware of a number of incidents reported in Gardner Road relating to excessive noise and anti social behaviour. ”

cbrooks@ajl.co.uk