Getting ready for student changeover: What’s happening and how you can help

As the student changeover period approaches (30 June and 1 July), we’re working closely with the council and universities to help keep our neighbourhoods clean and safe.

In our ward the areas most affected are Beckett Park, Otley Road, Church Wood Avenue, and bits of Meanwood.

What the council is doing

The council’s job during changeover is to collect leftover waste, but more importantly tackling the root causes of why waste ends up dumped on our streets.

We’re paying particular attention this year to waste coming from landlords and cleaning contractors. There’s often a noticeable rise in waste from properties just after 1 July. We believe some of this could be commercial waste being passed off as student move-out waste. The council is looking into this and taking enforcement action.

If you spot this happening please tip us off using the new tip off email address: tip.us.off@leeds.gov.uk

Council officers will be out doing door knocking with leaflets next week. They will focus on key hotspots, including the Escourts, Manors, Richmonds, and the area around Hyde Park Picture House. We'll be doing some door knocking of our own in Weetwood.

Towards end of June and early July we will have a waste team active in our area daily.

Tackling unauthorised textile banks

We’ve also seen some unauthorised textile banks appearing in the area, often linked to questionable organisations. These often become dumping hotspots, and enforcement officers are taking action to remove them.

Better support and clearer info for students

We’ve moved to single source of information for people moving. All key information is now in one place, the Unipol website.

Most streets in the area now receive weekly collections for black bins and glass. During changeover, these collections are even more frequent.

Reuse and resale

We want to encourage reuse as much as possible. Vinted and yard sales are increasingly popular and a good way to keep items in circulation. Please avoid pavement sales, which can create further mess and confusion.

A letter is going out to residents in the most affected streets.

How you can help

We’re trialling a new “tip us off” email address where you can report issues such as:

• landlords or companies dumping waste

• groups rummaging through bins and scattering rubbish

  
  

Please use: tip.us.off@leeds.gov.uk

We would need information such as their name, address, vehicle registration and details of suspicious activity.

If you spot some flytipping, please report it on the council website and if it's not dealt with within a day please let us know!

Positive results from last year

There were some encouraging outcomes from last year’s efforts:

• there was a 10% drop in overall waste collected because more went into reuse

• clothing donation banks from the British Heart Foundation and Revive collected an extra 10 tonnes of reusable materials, a one-third increase compared to the year before

• the community food drive collected 27 builders’ buckets of food for Rainbow Junction

• local free shops redistributed 750 kilograms of clothing to 225 vulnerable people

Thank you to everyone helping to manage this busy time of year. If you spot an issue or want to raise a concern, please get in touch.