Alison Hume
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Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler.
Tackling antisocial behaviour is vital to restoring pride in our communities, but for too many people in Scarborough, pride in where they live has been replaced by anxiety, frustration and fear. Increasingly, antisocial behaviour is concentrated around a small number of premises in the town centre that provide emergency temporary accommodation.
The impact on nearby residents and businesses has been profound. One constituent, Brian Witty, told me,
“It’s making my life a complete misery—my cameras are going off all night with people mooching about drinking, taking drugs, alcohol and fighting…I can’t have my grandchildren over because of the foul language and cannabis use.”
Another constituent, Rachel, said:
“Incidents are taking place every single day on the streets surrounding these properties, not just sporadically. We can’t use our garden anymore. We can’t even leave our windows open on hot days because of the noise and the smell.”
Guests of another accommodation provider requested refunds after experiencing sustained disruption during their stay.
Since raising those concerns with site operators, including a company called Homemore, I am pleased to say that meaningful improvements, such as 24-hour on-site security, have been made. Although the challenges remain, those measures have begun to make a positive difference.
To be clear, I do not oppose emergency accommodation being located in Scarborough, but we are seeing an over-concentration in one town out of a large county: 103 people were recently placed in emergency accommodation across North Yorkshire, and 58 were in Scarborough. We do not mind taking our share, but does the Minister agree that, although vulnerable people deserve safe accommodation, the communities that host them deserve fairness too?