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Local authorities could be on a collision course with the government over the implementation of more punitive measures in the drive to tackle antisocial behaviour.

The Local Government Association annual conference in Harrogate was told that many councils were failing to enforce antisocial behaviour orders in favour of more rehabilitative schemes, and were likely to reject proposals for tougher measures in the Antisocial Behaviour Bill.

Bridget Fox, joint deputy leader of Islington Council, said many of the measures in the bill, currently going through parliament, were either unnecessary or unhelpful. They include introducing fixed penalty notices for children as young as 10 and cutting housing benefit for disruptive council tenants.


However, Joe Tuke, deputy director of the antisocial behaviour unit in the Home Office, said new legal measures were necessary because people felt let down by local agencies.

He gave an example of a woman with learning difficulties who was being harassed by local youths. When she complained to her council she was told to keep a diary of events. She could not read or write.

"We have to get rid of that shrug of the shoulders, the jobsworth approach," said Tuke.

"There's no room for that attitude anymore."

Fox said co-operating with offenders was often more effective than punishing them, such as using acceptable behaviour contracts drawn up with the police, the housing department and the offender's family.

"We do have some concerns at what we see as an enforcement culture. Being young and in public is being seen as offensive. But young people are not a social problem, they are a part of our society and we must not start criminalising behaviour that may only be antisocial in the eye of the beholder," she explained.


At a fringe meeting, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Simon Hughes branded proposals for on-the-spot fines as "a nonsense system", and criticised the government for rolling them out before pilot studies had been completed and evaluated.

He said Labour had introduced 661 new offences in its six years in government and called for a reduction in the number of prisonable offences, instead increasing the use of acceptable behaviour contracts, probationary tenancies and good citizen training.