FIFE COUNCIL plans to spend an extra £320,000 on combating anti-social behaviour.

And operational hours will be extended so housing officers can work round the clock to gather the evidence needed to take unruly tenants to task.

Councillors at the community and housing services sub-committee today (Thursday) will be asked to back a new policy and agree extra investment.

John Mills, head of housing, said: "In order to fully implement the recommendations, additional resources are required to address low-level anti-social behaviour complaints at an early stage, prevent escalation and provide support to those people affected by the behaviour.

"It is proposed to invest an additional £320,000 in operational staff."

A housing services policy and a separate Fife-wide council strategy to deal with the problem both expired in March last year so new versions have been prepared.

He said: "The majority of anti-social behaviour happens outwith traditional office working hours and our services will be designed to reflect that.

"Evening and weekend access to officers already exists and it is proposed to extend this offering to a 24/7 service."

Mr Mills' report to the committee said there were a number of issues with the current policy that would be addressed.

He admitted that, as there were various ways to make a complaint about anti-social behaviour, including in person at a council office, on the phone to the police and emailing a housing management officer, there was a "degree of confusion as to who is responsible for owning the complaint".

He also conceded the current process had no set timescales, it "is unclear to customers when they should expect a resolution" and there is "frustration" at how long it takes to pursue legal action to resolve a complaint.

The housing chief said a review was necessary to provide clarity about what anti-social behaviour is, the remedies that were available and the standard of proof required for legal action.

Offences will fall into one of three categories – extreme, serious and minor.

Extreme cases include physical and threats of violence, aggressive behaviour causing fear and alarm, charges or convictions under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and hate incidents.

Verbal abuse, drug-dealing and frequent/ongoing serious disturbances such as loud music, parties, shouting and swearing come under the 'serious' category.

And minor offences cover occasional noise or infrequent disturbances, family disputes affecting neighbours and deliberate household/domestic noise.

They've also stated what will NOT be regarded as anti-social behaviour.

This includes normal household noise, such as use of domestic appliances, banging doors and children playing, social media disputes, the smell of drugs from a property, parking or boundary disputes, 'lifestyle' clashes and a breach of COVID regulations.

Offenders can face court action, fixed penalty notices and, if they are a council tenant, eviction from their home.

Other resolutions include mediation, acceptable behaviour agreements and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs).

The proposed housing services anti-social behaviour policy for 2020-22 pledges to increase communication with customers, community councils and tenants and residents associations, reduce the timescale for responding to complaints, cut red tape, change the arrangements for tackling hate crime and provide more clarity on when legal action may be taken and the position on misuse of drugs.

Other improvements will be a single point of contact, better access to mediation and victim support services, and improved evidence gathering, with a new online reporting tool and a free noise app making it easier to record and report issues.

Mr Mills added that the use of professional witnesses had been a "key factor" in gathering sufficient evidence to take high-level cases to court, and the council aimed to extend this service so they could help customers experiencing problems by intervening at an earlier stage.