Legal victory for autistic residents

A residential home for adults with autism has overturned a local
authority’s noise nuisance order that banned six autistic people
from using their back garden after 8pm.

Since 1990, the residents of the Hoffman de Visme Foundation home
in London had been prevented from using the garden after Brent
Council issued a noise nuisance notice against them following a
complaint from a neighbour.

Foundation chief executive Alison Forbes said the case was a
victory for human rights. “We believe that everyone, including
people with severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviour,
should be able to go out into the community and into their own back
garden,” she said.

Meanwhile, a High Court judge has ruled that a woman with mental
health problems who verbally abused her neighbours could not be
evicted from her housing association home because it would be
discriminatory.

The eviction of North Devon Homes tenant Christine Brazier was
ordered by a county court because of her antisocial behaviour.

But High Court judge Mr Justice David Steel overturned the ruling,
saying it would be a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act
1995.