Got your own ideas?

If your community is affected by anti-social behaviour, you might be thinking about starting an environmental improvement project of your own to tackle it. This page is intended to give you a starting point and includes links to further sources of help.

Alley-gating

Things to think about

Alley-gating has become a popular way of attempting to prevent anti-social behaviour near to where people live.

In some places putting a gate on an alleyway will be the right thing to do. In others it won’t.

There are a number of important things you need to consider before deciding whether a project like this is right for your neighbourhood. This checklist will help you think through those issues with other people in your area and help you decide how to take forward and manage your project.

• It’s important to consult widely with people nearby as you will need to obtain written permission from all the affected residents and this could take time
• Identifying home owners can sometimes be difficult so it’s worth finding out at an early stage if some of the houses in your street are owned or managed by agents or landlords
• Legal consent from the landowner is always required
• Think about who needs to have access to alleyways such as refuse collectors, housing staff or the police
• You might also need to consider electric, gas, cable, water and telephone companies who might need access to alleyways to carry out essential services
• Think about access requirements for all residents and other users to ensure that where appropriate the alleyway is accessible to pedestrians, vehicles or wheelchairs
• Consider the material to be used for the gate itself – it needs to be tamper-proof but also easy for residents to open and close
• Gates need to be solid and difficult to climb but also provide clear visibility
• Think about insurance issues and who would be liable for any accidents – you may need to get specialist advice on this
• Look at all the options for locks such as padlocks, self-closing and key-operated systems
• Think about a master-key system, which can be held centrally to ensure quick distribution, repair and replacement but also control over who has keys
• Don’t assume everyone will have a key – some areas may have transient populations, students in shared accommodation or be owned and managed by private landlords or housing associations which require different arrangements
• Discuss how to include key handovers within tenancy agreements and use a formal written key handover form

Things to read

This section is intended to provide more detailed background reading which may be useful in thinking through what the right approach is for your neighbourhood. More resources will be posted here over time.