BETTER late than never. Winchester City Council has finally taken action at a city centre house that has been the epicentre of anti-social behaviour for several years. As we reported on the front page, the house in Water Lane has been sealed off and no-one can enter it for three months whilst the council takes eviction proceedings against the residents. Closure powers have been used in the past against ‘crack houses’, centres of drug dealing, but this is the first time that action has been taken under the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. It is the right thing to do and the council should be prepared to do it again in the future, and again and again. Across the district there are far too many people’s lives being blighted by the actions of others, selfish often alcoholic people, who choose to ignore the obligations of living in a civilised society. Their oafish mantra of ‘I know my rights’ should be balanced by the reasonable requests of decent people that they should not have to live next to the noise, the litter, the abuse, the insults and the lurking fear of violence. Winchester is a generally tolerant place that accepts eccentricity (otherwise the late Ron Purse would not have lasted long); but there comes a point when the authorities’ tolerance of peoples’ ‘lifestyles’ becomes not a sign of decency but of wilful neglect.