SKDC have decided to not allow pensioners to use buses in the district before 9-30am. All the the other district councils have taken Lincolnshire County Councils pledge to match fund the costs of extending the service, mainly because most of the buses that people need to use leave before 9-30am.

Portfolio Holder for Finance, Maureen Spencer-Gregson said, "I'm not saying that we will never lift the time restrictions but I don't want to get into a situation where we lift the restrictions only to have to re-instate them at a later date if it becomes clear that it's too costly. Realistically we need to look at how and where people are using their passes over the next six to nine months and then we can make more accurate cost estimates and take another look at the time restrictions."

Which means it will never happen. The evidence over the next 6 - 9 months won't include the use before 9-30am which is crucial, apparently,to being able to cost the scheme properly. And SKDCs record in acting on evidence is pretty shabby anyway.

The cost of introducing an extension to the scheme would be in the region of 17K, which the portfolio holder says the coucil can't afford. Yet in the last month the council wrote of over 55K in uncollected non-domestic rates and made real savings of over 50K in 2007.

It is all a matter of political priorities and the SKDC Tories are  very  clear about where these are!

I have always been suspicious of the concept of anti-social behaviour. Although, I recognise the distress and misery that certain forms of behaviour, such as noise and vandalism can cause I have always felt uncomfortable about the blurring of civil and criminal offences.

Anti-social behaviour is defined so generally and loosely that it can effectively be defined as anything the victim believes it to be. Well according to Hazel Blears anyway. This concept is at the heart of the anti-social behaviour strategy set out by most local authorities.

The problem with all of this is that is essentially subjective. Fear, distress and alarm and sensitivity to noise will vary from individual to individual. Noise is a case in point; I recall listening to  and advising  a man who was stumbling on the edge of despair on how to deal with the issue of noise from a local pub. However, his neighbours were immune to it or did not think it was major issue. On a similar issue, I talked with a woman who said her was life was being made a misery by kids shouting and screaming in a bus shelter near her house. Similarly, her neighbours interpreted this differently and did not think it was a huge issue.

Promoting this kind of victim consciousness is having a profound impact on virtues of tolerance, communitariansim and effective communication. There is often a failure to just talk to people about their behaviour, without being judgemental about lifestyle. I have lived next door to noisy neighbours  and when it got too much told them, politely to keep it down and they, equally politely usually did.

Monitoring this is a huge problem. Government stats on anti-social behaviour orders issued do not collect information on the basis of ethnicity, social and educational background. Acceptable Behaviour contracts issued are not collected centrally. It is difficult to access information relating to allegations and complaints that have come to nothing, or have been proved to be erroneous or even vexatious (unless, of course, the vexatious complainant falls foul of an asbo themselves!)

Proof and the burden of proof is a key issue. ASBOs and their quieter sibling the acceptable l behaviour contract require far less proof and do not require the process of interrogation, cross examination of the evidence and the witnesses providing the evidence. It is enough, for a local authority or the police to place a set of statements before a magistrate for a decision to be made.

It is also difficult to see how the accused in the process are properly advised and represented. A trawl  of the web throws up very little, apart from the CAB.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the young and people with mental health problems are ABCd and ASBOd more than any other group. The ultimate question to be asked  is does any of this actually work?