Anti-social behaviour is getting worse in county

Third of people have experienced bad behaviour

MORE than a third of people experienced anti-social behaviour in Leicestershire last year - and the figure is growing.

That’s according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics, which show 36% of people in Leicestershire said they had experienced or witnessed any sort of anti-social behaviour in their local area in the year to March.

That’s the highest figure in at least four years - up from 33% of people in the year to March 2018, and 29% in March 2016.

However, despite a rise in people experiencing anti-social behaviour, fewer people think its a problem.

In the Leicestershire police area, only 6% of people said they thought there was a high level of anti-social behaviour.

That compares to 10% of people in the year to March 2018.

Around 24% of people thought that there was an issue with rubbish or litter lying around, while 19% thought people using or dealing drugs was an issue in their local area.

The next biggest issue was teenagers hanging around on the streets (15% of people thought this was a problem).

That was followed by people being drunk or rowdy in public places (13%), and vandalism, graffiti and other deliberate damage to property (10%).

The picture in Leicestershire is similar to the one across the country.

The number of people who had experienced or witnessed anti social behaviour rose to 38% across England and Wales up from one in three people last year.

At the same time, only 7% of people say that they are noticing a big problem.

That fell from 10% last year. A Home Office report released in 2010 found a frequent mismatch between an objective measure of antisocial behaviour and people’s perceptions.

Authors argued that how connected we are to other people in our neighbourhood - and to particular types of anti-social behaviour - affects whether we think what they are doing is problematic or not.

The statistics also showed that people are increasingly dissatisfied with the way police and councils are dealing with the issues where they live.

Only 55% of people agreed that police and councils were doing a good job - the lowest figure in the last four years.