Students and landlords urged to be mindful ahead of summer changeover

As many student tenancies end this month in Leeds, the council will be working closely with the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University to support students, landlords, and their agents to help keep noise and discarded waste to a minimum.

Residents can rest assured that council staff from a range of services will be out patrolling student areas, knocking on doors ,and engaging with students to resolve potential issues before they escalate.

Last year, the council worked in partnership with the universities to launch a one-of-a-kind dedicated service in a bid to tackle anti-social behaviour and noise issues in neighbourhoods with a large student population.

Fully funded by the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University, this service has been highly successful, with reports of noise reducing significantly since implementation.

Nightly patrols to address anti-social behaviour and noise disturbances will continue throughout the summer changeover period and increased resources will be deployed to ensure any anti-social behaviour is dealt with quickly and efficiently.

In addition to minimising noise, students and landlords can help by disposing of waste properly and recycling or donating items to charities where possible, ensuring nothing is left out on the street or at the side of their bins.

The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University jointly fund a doorstep collection service for reusable items during the changeover period, posting blue bags to 7,000 households. Residents can fill these bags with their donations, which will be redistributed.

Half of the donations go to the British Heart Foundation, which is also providing extra donation banks in the area. The other half are offered free of charge to communities in Leeds.

The council will also deploy additional refuse collection and street cleaning resources throughout the month, supported by specialist environmental enforcement officers who will target fly tipping of house contents onto residential streets and bin ‘tatting’ (where people scavenge from bins/bags, often leaving a mess behind).

To help students who are unable to get to a charity shop, the council is working with local charities St Vincent du Paul and Slate to run a pop-up charity drop-off point on Cinder Moor between 29-30 June, 10am-4pm. Reusable items like furniture, electrical items, clean bedding, and sealed food donations are welcome. 

Landlords and agents have also been reminded of their responsibility to properly dispose of waste from their properties and only use licensed third-party waste carriers. The council is supporting accredited landlords with free disposal of household waste. Enforcement action will be taken by council officers if necessary to ensure compliance.

All the advice and guidance has been brought together at www.unipol.org.uk/movingout

Speaking ahead of the changeover weekend Leeds City Council’s executive member for resources with responsibility for Safer Leeds, Councillor Debra Coupar and executive member for climate, energy, environment and green space, Councillor Mohammed Rafique, said,

“Students are an important part of our city’s community and make a massive contribution to our economy and culture, however we do recognise that in areas with a higher population of students, anti-social behaviour issues can arise.

“Anti-social behaviour is unacceptable, and no one should have to tolerate it. We will make every effort along with our partners to tackle the issue throughout the changeover period and would like to reassure local community that any issues will be handled quickly.”

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