LEGAL action is to be taken, for the first time in the Highlands, against antisocial tenants - or tenants with antisocial lodgers, who make others’ lives a misery.

South Kessock residents heard at a meeting with the housing authority in Merkinch Community Centre on 17th January that initially six tenants were being targeted in the first such move in the North.

In the hot seat was housing official Murray Cochrane who told the well-attended meeting, "We're about to take our first half dozen Antisocial Behaviour Orders through the courts. They could be severely fined or even jailed. Only in Edinburgh have these orders got to court so far.

"A lot of people who cause trouble are not tenants themselves, but lodgers. But we can take action against the landlords."

Mr Cochrane explained that the Tenants Rights Act which was brought in some 20 years ago and meant only a sheriff could evict, while meeting the problems of the day, had given rise to some of the difficulties being seen now.

And he assured the meeting that the local authority was totally committed to pursuing these orders. “We have the six names already but we have not yet got a court date. These things take time, but it will be as soon as we can get it through the system, perhaps just a matter of months.

"By and large if a tenant has a drug conviction we can evict," Mr Cochrane said, and went on to add that a few high profile cases would do a lot to help the problem. The audience agreed that it would give people heart if they knew the problem was really being tackled.

Mr Cochrane also spoke of the introduction of probationary tenancies in some cases. Councillor Peter Corbett, who chaired the meeting, said, "Because we have the houses here, we are in a position to give young people keys. But without support, they can sometimes end up antisocial tenants."

Ivor Souter of the Social Inclusion Programme said that soon young tenants would not only be getting a pack giving them guidelines, but they would also receive support from no less than five agencies, including housing, social work and the police. Some young tenants were the victims of the area’s antisocial element as much as anyone else, he pointed out. Among the catalogue of complaints brought to Mr Cochrane’s attention at the meeting, were...

• the various teething problems with the security system being installed at Tannery Court, Harbourside and Quayside;
• vandalism - one couple had had £187 damage done to their windows over the new year; another man had had his car damaged six times in two months and had installed his own camera system to protect it;
• parents of young children having to rise at 2am and 3am to get fire alarms reset;
• "rally" driving in the area - not always by local people. ("Get their numbers," advised Councillor Corbett);
• dampness in many houses - many broken rone and downpipes were never being repaired;
• one woman was horrified to find her six-year-old child could open childproof windows;
• syringes in children’s play area;
• neighbour’s rubbish left in the garden causing vermin trouble; rubbish after a fire never cleared;
• unsightly and dangerous cars being dumped and gradually scrapped (see below);
• slow reaction to maintenance and repairs - one person had to wait 15 weeks for an electrical fault on a light to be repaired.

Mr Corbett promised all these matters would be pursued, and Mr Cochrane agreed to go walkabout in the area on 25th January.