A tempestuous council meeting saw Enfield Borough Council committee members approve a new licensing scheme for private landlords.

The overview and scrutiny meeting was overshadowed by a heated debate surrounding plans to license landlords.

The committee voted in favour of the scheme which will require landlords to sign up for a license for £500 over five years or £250 if they sign up before April 2015.

Cutting down on the level of anti-social behaviour is highlighted as the main reason for the scheme and that came under a barrage of questions from landlords watching the meeting.

Councillor Terry Neville spoke against the scheme stating that the this will show people antisocial behaviour is prevalent in Enfield.

Cllr Ahmet Oykener defended the policy and believes that this is not going against good landlords and wants to work with good landlords to help dig out the rogues.

Things became increasingly heated when landlords had the chance to have their say and policy expert Constantinos Regas asked about the correlations levels of antisocial behaviour and landlords which would need to be acceptable to pass the scheme.

His question went unnoticed and chairman of the meeting Cllr Toby Simon shouted at Mr Regas to “sit down” when he pushed the committee to answer his question.

Points were also raised that not enough landlord consultation had been made.

The decision was passed and on leaving the room, disgruntled landlords threw planning papers in the air, crying “shame” and “disgrace” on their way out.

Plans to pursue legal action is believed to be the next step for landlord group ‘Stop Enfield’ who have fought against the scheme.