Antisocial behaviour can affect the quality of life for individuals and the whole community.

It is behaviour that has caused or may cause:

• harassment, alarm or distress to any person
• nuisance or annoyance to a person because of their job or where they live
• housing-related nuisance such as loud noise, rubbish outside the property or annoyance to any person

It is also behaviour that can be considered unreasonable or is having a detrimental effect over a long period of time on the quality of life of the local community.

What is not antisocial behaviour

Some incidents are not classed as antisocial behaviour. For example:

• children playing in their home, garden or communal areas at reasonable times of the day
• a baby crying
• cooking smells
• people doing DIY at a reasonable time of the day
• putting rubbish out on the wrong day
• dogs barking now and again
• occasional parties
• minor personal difference such as fall outs between children
• clashes of lifestyles including cultural differences