Students are a welcome and valued part of the Kirkstall community, contributing to the varied communities in many different ways, writes James Corah.
When residents do have issues with students’ negative behaviour please contact the Helpline partnership, though equally remember that students can and will happily take part in community groups. Students and alumni contributed to this year’s Kirsktall Festival, Kirkstall in Bloom, Burley Top Community Association, and many more local groups…
With the new university terms under way the Universities and College Neighbourhood Helpine Service would like to remind all local residents of the support services available to them.
The helpline is a 24-hour dedicated voicemail and email service operated by the University of Leeds in partnership with Leeds Beckett University, Leeds Trinity University College, Leeds City College, and Leeds College of Music.
Whether the issue involves noise, waste, parking or playing ball games, the Helpline partnership work with service users, Police and Leeds City Council to educate and correct negative behaviour amongst their students.
The Helpline partnership can be contacted through the following:
E: neighbourhood.helpline@leeds.ac.uk
T: 0113 343 1064 (Voicemail)
W: http://sustainability.leeds.ac.uk/
Last year the Helpline partnership was able to respond to 131 complaints involving 109 households reported to the service.
Further information about the complaints made and the response can be found in the Neighbourhood Helpline Annual Report on their webpages.
Key highlights from the report include:
- Noise nuisance was the dominant issue affecting Helpline users (85%), followed by waste management (3%). Noise is increasingly the dominant issue reported with a reduction of complaints being made on other neighbourhood issues, including waste, recycling and litter.
- The Headingley ward is the area with the highest number of issues relating to student behaviour (65%), followed by Hyde Park and Woodhouse (39%), Weetwood (18%) and Kirkstall (6%).
- 50% of complaints resulted in the universities and colleges writing to our students about their behaviour, 28% of complaints were escalated to a home visit due to a further complaint being made, or because the complaint involved either a vulnerable resident or more serious issue. 2% of complaints were escalated to students being invited in to their university for a formal meeting.
· No action was taken by the Helpline in 20% of the households reported due to no student involvement being identified.