YOU can choose your friends, but you can't choose your neighbours. A good one can enhance your life beyond measure. A bad one can destroy it.

Nikkii Brown was a neighbour from hell. The Chapelfields teenager's noisy, drug-fuelled lifestyle provoked scores of complaints. Residents were driven crazy by her wanton selfishness.

Magistrates attempted to bring her into line by imposing a suspended two-year order for drugs possession, but it did no good.

So now Miss Brown has lost her home - and her neighbours have regained theirs. It is a just exchange.

Her eviction is a victory for those stoic residents who refused to be intimidated by her aggression. When the council was preparing the case to kick her out, they needed testimony from long-suffering neighbours. Some opted out, for fear of reprisals.

But others were prepared to back the council. They enabled the tenancy enforcement team to grasp this unpleasant nettle and uproot it.

Not many years ago, the authorities seemed powerless to act against the likes of Miss Brown. Now, using new laws and working together, the council and the police are acting effectively against persistent troublemakers who ruin community life.

Earlier this week we reported that the number of anti-social behaviour orders imposed on York yobs is on the increase. That is evidence of a renewed determination by the police and the courts to tackle the scourge of vandalism and abuse.

There is much more to do. While yobs still feel able to fire off ball bearing guns at York bus drivers, the zero tolerance message is not being heard clearly enough.

But with each fresh eviction and court order, it will begin to filter through even the thickest skulls.

Updated: 09:44 Friday, September 03, 2004