The team has carried out over 1,500 visits to homes in response to complaints about persistent anti-social behaviour. And following on from these, over 57% of the addresses were not subject to any further reports of anti-social behaviour, and the majority of complaints were resolved in just two visits.

Working in partnership alongside Police Scotland, the service also continues to receive positive feedback and has a 93.55% satisfaction rating for the period 2016/17. This level has risen yearly since the introduction of the redesigned service.

Councillor Allan Graham, convener of enterprise and housing, said: “We’ve seen a real difference by introducing our out-of-hours proactive team. Together with officers from Police Scotland, we carry out joint visits to identified properties across North Lanarkshire on Friday and Saturday nights. The properties we visit are highlighted to us as being involved, or on the cusp of being involved with antisocial behaviour during the previous weekends.

“These visits disrupt any potential antisocial behaviour and deliver a robust message to householders that any further antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated. We continue to look at ways to enhance our service and make better use of the powers of both council officers and officers from Police Scotland.”

One example of this partnership in action is its response to a complaint about a serious, ongoing issue of anti-social behaviour. The locality team carried out door-to-door enquiries in relation to this and established that the situation was potentially more serious, with residents too frightened to complain due to fear of repercussions.

Many of the issues involved criminality with these occurring at weekends. The address was identified as a ‘hotspot’ and targeted for joint patrols by the out-of-hours team and Police Scotland. This initially disrupted and subsequently prevented the ongoing anti-social behaviour. The team also acted as professional witnesses and issued formal warnings. Legal action is being pursued and pro-active visits continue to provide reassurance.

Police Scotland’s Community Policing service has been remodelled and is now known as Problem Solving teams. This involves dedicated teams working across day and night shifts to ensure improved consistency with the same officers providing these duties.

Inspector Alistair Anderson, Police Scotland, Lanarkshire Division, added: “Tackling antisocial behaviour across our communities continues to be a priority for Police Scotland and this can only be achieved through strong partnership working. The success of this initiative in reducing complaints, disorder and other associated issues cannot be understated and I believe our communities are reaping the benefits of our close working relationship.

“The newly created Local Problem Solving Teams are specifically tasked to identify and tackle emerging problems before they escalate into significant issues and I am confident that, by working in partnership with the Antisocial Response Officers, this initiative will continue to deliver first class results across North Lanarkshire.”