BOSSES at River Clyde Homes are targeting troublesome tenants in a new way by securing anti-social behaviour orders against them.

The area's largest housing association has gone to the sheriff court twice in recent weeks to seek ASBOs over individuals following persistent complaints about their behaviour.

They say the tenants ignored repeated warnings.

These are the first ASBOs to be granted to RCH and one of the individuals, a 35-year-old man, was subsequently arrested for breaching his.

He has now been prohibited from returning to Greenock, meaning that he is out of his property.

Elaine Cannon, RCH service improvement manager, said: “The recent situation has shown how effective partnership working can be to solve a problem that was affecting a number of people.

"We are aware of the impact anti-social behaviour can have on our tenants’ lives, particularly during this pandemic, and we take a zero tolerance approach.

"An ASBO prevents a person behaving in certain ways or doing certain things and can prevent further distress and alarm caused by anti-social behaviour.

“As we saw in the case of one of the perpetrators, Police Scotland, Inverclyde Council and the sheriff have acted quickly at the first sign of a breach.

“As a result of this excellent partnership working, including with local residents, we have seen swift action take place."

The association says it will continue to to utilise this new tactic to help residents who report anti-social behaviour.

They say they will take steps recover the tenancy from the culprits.

Inspector Andrew Durk of the community policing team said: “Police Scotland has been working together with River Clyde Homes and Inverclyde Council to tackle a number of properties regarding anti-social behaviour and flouting COVID regulations, by a small number of tenants.

"This kind of persistent behaviour remains a focus for the area commander and we will continue to target and pursue these individuals using the strongest possible legal action against them.

"Since the interim ASBOs were granted, a 35-year-old male was arrested for allegedly breaching the conditions and was held in custody to appear at court.

"This demonstrates how working in partnership can have a positive impact against individuals concerned in this kind of toxic behaviour.”

Depute council leader Jim Clocherty says no one should have to put up with anti-social behaviour.

He added: “We’re committed to tackling the problem in partnership with the police and other relevant organisations, in this case River Clyde Homes.

“Evidence supplied by the council’s community wardens and police helped officers and RCH to take action."

*Residents are encouraged to report anti-social behaviour to Police Scotland and Inverclyde Council’s community wardens as well as contacting River Clyde Homes on 0800 013 2196 which they can do in confidence at any time.