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We want to make sure that our neighbourhoods are good places to live. The following standards tell you how we will deal with the issues that you’ve told us really matter.
Maintaining grounds and gardens
We will do the following:
- We will cut the grass in our shared public areas (such as grass verges and gardens) from April to November. We try to do this every 14 to 21 days, but sometimes it can be longer depending on the weather and how much work we have to do. Unfortunately, we cannot take the grass clippings away.
- We will cut all of the hedges in these areas once a year.
- We will write to or visit anyone with an untidy garden and agree with them what they need to do to make it neater. We will then visit them within 28 days to make sure it is tidier.
- We will replace or remove all out-of-date and damaged Westlea signs within one month of you telling us about them.
Rubbish
We will do the following:
- If we find large items of rubbish in shared areas inside blocks of flats we will put notices on them asking the owner to take them away. We will do this within 48 hours* of finding out about it. If the owner does not take it away away, we will remove it within 10 days.
- We will remove all large items of rubbish found in outdoor shared areas within five working days of finding out about them.
- We will regularly clean all shared bin areas.
- We will run waste and recycling events in our neighbourhoods.
If we have to remove large items of rubbish, we will charge the person who left them out.
Abandoned vehicles
If a car or other vehicle has been abandoned, we will do the following:
- If the vehicle is on land that we own and is dangerous (for example, if the glass in the windows is broken), we will remove it within 24 hours* of you telling us about it.
- If the vehicle is on land that we own, but is not dangerous, we will put a notice on it, within 24 hours* of being told about it. We will then remove it within 57 working days. It takes this long because we have to get information from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and give the vehicle’s owner the chance to take it away themselves. If the vehicle is not on land that we own, we will report it within 24 hours to the council that owns it. We will contact them every two weeks to check what they are doing to remove it. We will also give you a phone number and reference number so that you can contact the council yourself if you would like to.
Graffiti
We will remove:
- offensive graffiti (for example racist language) within 24 hours* of you telling us about it; and
- all other graffiti within 21 days of you telling us about it.
Criminal damage
We will investigate any report of criminal damage to shared or public areas, and tell you what we have
done or are going to do about it, within 24 hours of you reporting it.
Other organisations
We will need to work with other organisations (such as the police and local councils) to tackle some of these issues. If we are waiting for another organisation to do something, we will contact you everytwo weeks to keep you up-to-date on what is happening.
How we will check that we are meeting these standards
We will do the following:
- We will visit your neighbourhood every month to make sure that there are no problems and check that we have done everything that we said we would do in that month.
- We will put information about what we do on our website at www.westlea.co.uk, in our newsletters, and in ‘HOME’ magazine.
- We will carry out ‘walkabouts’ in your neighbourhood every three months. This will give you the opportunity to talk to your neighbourhood’s housing officer about any issues you have. They will wear a Westlea coat or t-shirt so that you know who they are.
- We will tell you what we have done to put right any problems that you tell us about. We will tell you about improvements we have made. We will do this in ‘HOME’ magazine, our newsletters, and on our website.
How you can help us
You can make your neighbourhood a
better place to live by:
- putting your bin bags in your bin;
- putting out your bin for collection on the right day;
- getting rid of large items of rubbish by using your local council’s ‘bulk refuse’ service (see the back of your tenancy handbook for contact details) or taking them to your local household recycling centre;
- telling us about any damage to areas that we own (for example damage to our garages or bin stores) or other problems as soon as possible;
- recycling as much of your rubbish as you can;
- keeping your garden tidy (please ask us if you need help to do this);
- taking part in any clean up-campaigns that we run in the area; and
- letting us know if we are/are not keeping any of these promises.
There are some useful contact numbers for local councils on the back of your tenancy handbook.
*Monday-Friday (normal working days)
You can download a copy of this information in PDF format here.
