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Neighbourhood helpline

 The Neighbourhood Helpline is now closed. For more information, please see our Neighbourhood Helpline Closure FAQs.

The University of Leeds works in partnership with the city’s other higher education institutions, the Leeds City Council Antisocial Behaviour Team and West Yorkshire Police. We aim to engage with neighbouring communities, help our students to foster positive behaviour, and address potential negative effects on the wider community through education alongside disciplinary and enforcement action. 

The University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University fund a dedicated anti-social behaviour and noise service for the Inner North West Leeds area, which is run by Leeds City Council.  The service provides a dedicated resource for the area including intelligence led proactive patrols, response officer covering 5pm to 3.30am seven nights a week, and increased contact centre call handling capacity at peak times.  Resource for this team is increased on Friday and Saturday nights as well as key dates such as Freshers Week. A funded community coordinator role based within LASBT west Team will also coordinate the dedicated service delivery to ensure we maximise the resource and provide customer focussed interface between the partnership and residents. 

How to report an issue

If you are experiencing an issue with anti-social behaviour or noise nuisance from domestic properties, you should contact the Leeds City Council Anti-Social Behaviour Team: 

  • During office hours (9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday) - call 0113 222 4402  
  • Outside of office hours (6pm - 3:30am and weekends) - call 0113 376 0337  

You can report issues relating to waste here.

The disciplinary process

Details of complaints are shared between Leeds City Councils Anti-Social Behaviour Team and the Universities to help identify students living in the properties concerned. The relevant university or college will then take appropriate action in line with their own governance and policies. 

Where University of Leeds students have been identified as being involved in a complaint, we follow a four stage process.  As part of the process we classify the severity of the complaint to decide whether educational or disciplinary action is most appropriate. Where necessary a referral to the University's General Disciplinary Regulations will be made, where the outcomes can include official warnings, fines, suspensions and expulsion from the University. 

Stage 1 - Identification of the University of Leeds student involvement with community issues

Issues are registered with the University through the process detailed in the Neighbourhood Helpline Code. Where our students have been identified as living at a property causing a neighbourhood issue, the Sustainability service begin the University process for handling community complaints. 

The University assesses the severity and impact of the incident reported before deciding on the best course of action. The impact can be classed as minor, moderate or major, and these have different potential outcomes in the disciplinary process. 

Stage 2 - Contact made with students involved

Where issues were considered to have had a minor impact and where it is the first complaint received against the students, then all students identified as living at the property are contacted through a letter.  This details the allegation and provides guidance on living locally and the University, as well as explaining the processes and sanctions if further complaints are registered.  It also advises students that if further complaints are received, then further disciplinary action will be taken.

If the issue was classed as having a moderate impact or if they have already been involved in previous complaints then the disciplinary process will proceed to stage 3.

Students involved in issues that had a major impact proceed directly to stage 4 of the disciplinary process.

Stage 3 - Good Citizenship training

If the issue was moderate or if students have been involved in previous complaints then they will be invited to Good Citizenship training. 

All students identified as living at the property are contacted through a letter and email to request that they attend the Good Citizenship training workshop within a specified time frame. The letter details the allegations, provides guidance on resident responsibilities and details the University and Leeds City Council processes for responding to neighbourhood issues. 

The workshop has been developed to give students a better understanding of their role and responsibilities in society and how to make a positive contribution to the local community. 

This includes guidance on how to manage conflict with others, identify solutions to neighbourhood disputes, understand the consequences and impacts of nuisance behaviours and help them to prevent further situations that would result in further complaints. 

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: 

  • State their need for training around good citizenship; 
  • Describe the rights and responsibilities of citizens and the sanctions should these be breached. Including Leeds City Council and University sanctions for community conduct. 
  • Describe the impact anti-social behaviour has on people, businesses and organisations in the community; 
  • Describe examples of anti-social behaviour and the solutions to resolve situations; and 
  • Describe how they might contribute positively to their community and articulate actions to enable them to make such a contribution. 

The Good Citizenship training workshop is compulsory for those who are asked to attend.  Students that fail to attend within the required time frame are referred to the Head of Student Cases for further action. 

Stage 4 - Referral to the Head of Student cases

If the complaint was considered to have had a major impact or if students have previously attended Good Citizenship training and receive further complaints then they will be directly referred to the Head of Student cases. 

Student behaviour and appropriate action will then be considered under the  General Disciplinary Regulations. 

Community partnership

Through ongoing dialogue and engagement with the local community and our partners, we work proactively to meet local needs and ensure the university and our students play a positive role in society. 

We attend community meetings and committees to listen to the needs of the community and develop collaborative approaches to managing issues.  These include involvement in working groups tasked with addressing noise nuisance and issues associated with the period when our students move out of their shared housing.   

The table below provides detail on the number incidents relating to University of Leeds students, and actions taken to date. These actions may be ongoing, and so the numbers in this table may change over time. 

 

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

 

We use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to guide our activity. Our neighbourhood helpline is linked to the following SDGs:

  • Goal 3: Good health and well-being
  • Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities
  • Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Find out more about our impact on the SDGs.