Earlier this week Bath City Centre Action Group, comprising TARA, CARA and PERA demanded action from the Police, Council and Curo Housing over so-called ‘Party Houses’. Party Houses are notorious properties rented out for just two or three days to groups of people, usually celebrating a stag or hen night, and form a constant cause of misery to people living near them.
To ensure they get results the City Centre Action Group have made full use of new legal powers, that came into force on the 20thOctober, and pulled ‘the community trigger’. The new community trigger requires all responsible bodies to work together to resolve frequently repeated anti-social behaviour problems.
It is not just the noise from uproarious drinking sessions day and night at these Party Houses, but children have witnessed lewd actions and nudity. The Community Trigger is a significant new power within the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It allows people to insist action is taken over repeated antisocial behaviour problems
A handful of landlords actively encourage wild 24 hour parties and local people suffer loss of sleep and emotional upset as a result of noise, unattractive behaviour and foul language. We welcome the new powers to tackle these problems and specifically request the authorities use their new closure powers to curb irresponsible landlords.
In addition to making more use of closure orders, we have also called upon Licensing to use its powers under the Housing Act 2004 to create special licensing to control party houses in future. We need to protect the rights of all local residents to live a normal family life