The battle to combat anti-social behaviour in Bradford is "moving in the right direction" but more needs to be done, it was claimed yesterday.

Louise Casey, head of the Home Office's Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, said despite the success of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) across the district campaigns to fight intimidation and harassment must continue.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus from a conference in Sheffield designed to find new ways to stamp out anti-social behaviour, Mrs Casey said the public had an important role to play to help reduce incidents.

"In Bradford action against anti-social behaviour is moving in the right direction but if you live in Bradford you'd say there's not enough being done," she said.

"It's about a cultural thing and people need to start confronting bad behaviour when it first happens."

Mrs Casey said Bradford's anti-social behaviour team was "not complacent" and would continue to fight problems, ranging from graffiti and litter dropping to threatening behaviour and violence.

She said ASBOs had made a difference in Bradford but agencies had to do more to make the public aware of individuals who had been made the subject of them.

"People with ASBOs need to know that their faces could be in the local paper or on leaflets and then the public can tell the authorities if they're breaching their ASBO," she said.

She added new legislation, including family behaviour contracts, would always be tried before ASBOs were brought.

Yesterday's Together Academy was one of 15 running this month for professionals across Yorkshire and Humberside to learn more about ways to reduce anti-social behaviour.

Anti-social behaviour co-ordinators, youth offending team workers, neighbourhood wardens and police community support officers gathered to share ideas to tackle problems.

Ideas included collecting evidence against offenders, involving the community and encouraging neighbourhood policing.

Chris Slaven, anti-social behaviour manager for Bradford's Safer Communities Partnership, said: "We have learnt so much from taking part in the workshops and listening and talking to others about their ideas and approaches to tackling this national problem.

"Tackling anti-social behaviour is a priority in Bradford and we are doing some really positive work in developing and delivering preventative measures as well as acting quickly to tackle issues when required."

Mr Slaven said 130 out of 600 cases of anti-social behaviour referred to the team had come from the public and said the figures were "very encouraging".