Improving Dorset's neighbourhoods

"The award is about working together," says Ruth

A woman has received an award for the work she has done to improve Dorset's neighbourhoods.

Ruth Ashdown is a manager of an anti-social behaviour team for a Dorset-based housing association.

The award is for 'outstanding contribution to engaging local communities'.

The work of Ruth and her team takes them out across the county and beyond, in response to complaints and concerns about anti-social behaviour.

"It's about working together"

Working closely with police, Ruth has witnessed some shocking examples of anti-social behaviour first hand, but is pleased to be recognised with this award.

She said: "It means a lot to me, because what we try to do each day is make the community safer for everybody.

"The award is about working together, and it's taken years to get from where I started where I felt I was always labouring the point that we need to be dealing with anti-social behaviour.

"When I started, we called it 'neighbour nuisance' but now we have a dedicated team to deal with it."

Dorchester-based Magna Housing manage 6,000 properties. Most of them are in West Dorset but others are in Devon, Bristol, Bath and Bournemouth and Poole.

Her job is more than just looking after the association's tenants.

She said: "I do look after the tenants of the housing association, but there are lots of people affected by the behaviour of the tenants of the housing association.

"There is a reputation that goes with social housing and if I can do anything to make that better or to dispel the bad press [social housing tenants] get, I will.

"The idea is to work with people to change their behaviour and not just kick them out of their homes.

"Ninety-two per cent of our tenants are absolutely fine, but if we receive a complaint, or suspect there's a problem, we have to follow it up."

Drug problems

"One of the problems we have is drugs. It is more of a problem than most of the general public people would realise.

"I know it goes on in building sites, in backyards, schools. It is not just in our properties, it goes on everywhere.

"If I know of a drug-dealing problem, I seek to deal with it as quickly as possibly.

"The problem I have is to prove it, which is very hard. Witnesses are very scared to come forward and people are reluctant to give evidence, so we work jointly with police."

Alongside the police, Ruth takes anonymous witness statements to help resolve anti-social problems, and has also had to give evidence in court on behalf of the people who gave those statements.

This means it can be a long process before the problem is finally resolved.

She said: "I recently helped with the closure of a crack house in Bridport. That was a police-led thing, but it was our property and our residents, so I gave a statement on behalf of the police, and I was able to input into that process of closing it down."

Ruth Ashdown (centre) and her team travel across the county and beyond

Challenging work

Ruth says that the job is very challenging, and she never quite knows what could be on the end of a phone when it rings: "That's what's exciting about it.

"We have two officers who travel where ever at a moment's notice. You do get some quite scary things sometimes, but that's part of the job, and you need to be prepared for it."

Ruth doesn't think that anti-social behaviour in Dorset is improving, but the response to it has got better: "We have a set of tools which mean we have to go through each case in a specific way, following guidelines.

"We are more robust in our approach and we need to be if we are going to be taking someone to court."

"We have had some good results. We have evicted some families unfortunately, and that's a last resort.

"I don't want to evict anyone but we have to think of the wider community."

Ruth believes that the anti-social problems she encounters in Dorset are the ones most commonly found everywhere.

She said: "The problems we have in Dorset are nothing like [the scale of] the problems we have elsewhere.

"If we have it here in Dorset, we have it everywhere [in Britain]. In my experience [in Dorset], there's not much knife crime and no murders."

"Asset to the community"

Ruth's 'outstanding contribution award to engaging local communities' was part of the Dorset Criminal Justice Board awards, having been nominated by Dorchester Police Inspector Les Fry who described her as an 'asset to the community'.

He said: "She works tirelessly to improve the lives of both Magna tenants and the community at large and her efforts are much appreciated.

"It's this sort of commitment that makes a big difference to people's lives."

Ruth said there is a strong sense of job satisfaction in her role: "There is, when it works out: when someone changes their behaviour, and when we prevent [anti social behaviour] so it doesn't impact on others."

"We always try to make sure people know who we are, and make sure they know they can complain, and if they do, that something can be done.

"In the old days, people thought there was no point complaining.

"Today we get more complaints, but I think that's because people know we will do something about it."