A community organisation's crackdown on antisocial behaviour is leading to a nuisance neighbour being evicted every 16 weeks.

A report reveals that in the five years since the eb4U regeneration programme began working in East Brighton, there have been 16 evictions and 53 residents have been given antisocial behaviour orders.

A further 97 were made to sign acceptable behaviour contracts by the community safety team, created in 2000 to clean up crime and disorder in East Brighton.

The area was blighted by crime and nuisance tenants making life a misery for the majority of residents who were sick of a minority of people wrecking their communities.

The community safety team receives money from eb4U, which was given £47.2 million from central government to spend regenerating the deprived estates.

East Brighton is half way through the regeneration process. One of the main targets of the scheme was to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour using new civil powers, as well as to provide community policing.

John Mitchell, head of the team, gave a report about its work in the past five years to a meeting of the Whitehawk Crime Prevention Forum on the Whitehawk estate, highlighting the success of the scheme.

Work carried out by the team included alley-gating, closing off a rat-run of pathways on the estate which allowed criminals to operate.

Other activities included the good neighbour scheme, creating a domestic violence project which worked with the perpetrators of domestic violence, a pioneering approach.

The team installed CCTV in North Moulsecoomb, funded a ball-bearing gun amnesty and tackled illegal motorcycle riding on the estates.

Mr Mitchell said: "I think we have come a long way but there is still a lot of work to do. I feel where we are, with the progress we have made, that we are in a good position. We have seen a reduction in crime."

The team's money is reduced from March 2006 but many of the projects have been taken on by other funders. Sussex Police took over funding the police posts as they had proved so successful.

Many residents consider the community safety teams as the most effective project to come out of the eb4U regeneration project.

John Commons, chairman of the Whitehawk and Manor Farm Community Association, said: "The community safety team is the only part of eb4U which has delivered what people wanted."

Former city councillor Bob Christofoli said: "This is one of the visible successes in East Brighton, which is being developed right across the city."