Problem group banned from Armley Town Street due to anti-social behaviour

Six individuals whose anti-social behaviour has blighted the day-to-day lives of residents and businesses in a west Leeds community have been banned from entering a popular high street.

Following targeted work by the Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team (LASBT) and partners including West Yorkshire Police and Housing Leeds, injunction orders were secured at Leeds County Court last week which means that for a two-year period, five individuals will not be able to visit or frequent Armley Town Street. An injunction order against another individual was secured at court last month. This follows a range of anti-social behaviour committed by the group which fuelled by the drinking of alcohol, included provocation and abuse aimed at members of the public, littering, urinating on the street, and in the case of one of the individuals, threats been made to staff at local businesses and harassment of residents living in a nearby street.

Members of LASBT and West Yorkshire Police will be closely monitoring each of the injunctions to ensure they are actively enforced. Failure by any of the group to comply with the injunction order could result in a significant fine or potentially prison.

Any residents suffering from anti-social behaviour can get in touch with LASBT in the following ways: To report in the daytime call 0113 222 4402 or West Yorkshire Police on 101.

Councillor Mark Dobson, Leeds City Council’s executive board member with responsibility for Safer Leeds said:

“Any community high street should be somewhere where residents and local businesses feel safe and secure, and once we were made aware of the anti-social behaviour from these six individuals on Armley Town Street, we did not hesitate in attempting to secure injunction orders through the courts.

“As part of the injunction orders, none of these individuals will be able to visit or be on Armley Town Street for the next two years, and we will be monitoring the area extremely closely with partners to make sure that this remains the case.

“I hope the steps that have been taken last week by LASBT and our partners send out a clear message to any other person or group who think they too can get away with making the lives of people a misery, of the steps we are willing to take to put a stop to anti-social behaviour in any shape or form.”

Inspector Simon Jessup, who heads the Inner West Neighbourhood Policing Team, said:

“The granting of the injunctions is a really positive step forward in our ongoing work to tackle the issues of street drinking and related anti-social behaviour in Armley Town Street.

“The individuals we have targeted are the main offenders whose behaviour has been a real blight on the area for some time. These injunctions are a powerful additional tool and we will be working closely with our partner agencies, with the support of local businesses and residents, to take action over any breaches.

“At the same time we are working with other agencies, such as charitable organisations that provide outreach work to people with alcohol dependency, as we recognise this is not a situation that enforcement action alone can resolve.

“We remain firmly committed to doing everything we can alongside our partner agencies to improve the situation and will continue to make full use of the available legislation to target those whose behaviour has an ongoing detrimental impact on local communities.”

Notes to editors:

As part of the injunction, the individuals cannot:

Enter Armley Town Street or surrounding area covered by a Designated Public Places Order (DPPO).

Open an Alcohol vessel in the DPPO.

Behave in a manner likely to cause Harassment, alarm or distress (HAD).

For media enquiries, please contact;Colin Dickinson, Leeds City Council press office

(0113) 39 51578

Email: colin.dickinson@leeds.gov.uk