- your opportunity to find outhow the universities and studentunions of Cardiff engage withthe community.My name is Emma Robson,Cardiff Council’s Student LiaisonOfficer, working in partnership withCardiff University, CardiffMetropolitan University and theUniversity of South Wales.

This Issue of Unity News reflectsthe fantastic work that has beenundertaken by student and non-student residents since the start ofthe 2014/2015 academic term.

Additional Licensing comes toPlasnewyddOn 3 November 2014 an additionallicensing scheme for Houses inMultiple Occupation (HMO) startedin Roath (Plasnewydd Ward). Thescheme ensures that all HMOs aresafe and meet legal standards.

The licensing scheme, which hasbeen running successfully inCathays since 2010, requires all

owners of HMOs to apply to theCouncil for a licence.

Cabinet Member for Environment,Cllr Bob Derbyshire, said:“Plasnewydd is an area of the citythat has a large student populationliving in private rentedaccommodation, many of them inHouses in Multiple Occupation.Although there are many good

landlords out there, our researchindicates that more than a third ofHMOs would fail to meet DecentHomes Standards. AdditionalLicensing has proven to be aneffective means of improvingaccommodation standards inCathays so it makes sense to extend

the scheme to neighbouring areas ofthe city.”

The Cathays scheme has seentenants in 766 HMOs benefit fromimproved means of escape in caseof fire; 629 properties have hadkitchen, bathroom and toilet facilitiesupgraded; security improvementshave been made to 311 properties;affordable warmth and energyefficiency improvements have beenmade to 271 HMOs and 1230hazards identified during inspectionshave been removed. Noisecomplaints, pest control complaintsand burglaries in the area have allbeen on a downward trend.

Landlords will have to satisfy theCouncil that the HMO is suitable forthe number of occupiers, pass a “fitand proper” person test and pay alicence fee (currently £560 - £770per property for a 5 year licence).

Tenants who have concerns about thestandard of their property are advisedto approach Housing Enforcement,Cardiff Council by emailingprivatesectorhousing@cardiff.gov.uk.For further student housing advice,visit www.cardiffdigs.co.uk

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WHAT’S INSIDE?►Housing Enforcement and South

Wales Police release new “StudentLocks” crime prevention video

►Multi agency partnership events seeover 200 students given responsibleand safe cycling advice

►Say hi to the new Sabbatical Officersand find out how they haveengaged with the community sinceSeptember

Keep in touch with Unity newsand Cardiff DIGS.

Keep up to date with all the newsacross the city related to students

and the community at our Twitter,Facebook and Blog pages whichcan be found here:

cardiffdigs.blogspot.com/

twitter.com/@cardiffdigs

facebook.com/cardiff.digs

This newsletter is available in Welsh Mae’r cylchlythyr hwn ar gael yn Cymraeg

GOING HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS?As students wind down for theend of term Christmas parties andhead off home for the holidaysthey are reminded of the need tomake sure their accommodation isleft securely locked with all wastepresented correctly and at theright time for collection and theirvaluable possessions are takenaway with them.

Student liaison officer, PCSO FranRichards said: “At the end of eachterm we remind students about theneed to be vigilant with their term-time homes as well as to take anyvaluable possessions home withthem.

“We are working in partnership withCardiff University Security, CathaysNeighbourhood Policing Team,CardiffDIGS and the Police StudentVolunteers and will be carrying outwalkabouts throughout Cathays.

“We will be door knocking andspeaking to students, remindingthem to take their property homewith them for the Christmas breakand to secure their properties whenthey leave. We will also remindstudents of their responsibility to putour their recycling, food waste andblack bags at the correct time to helpthe community and City Councilkeep the area as clean as possible.

“This is a campaign which is run atthe end of term times and serves as

a crime prevention reminder to allstudents.

"This partnership work is aboutensuring students are as safe aspossible while they are living inCardiff and keeping burglars awayfrom the area – during the holidaysas well as in term time.

"Burglary can be an extremelytraumatic experience and SouthWales Police is committed topreventing break-ins andarresting those responsible.

"Burglars don’t want to force entry soas always make sure you have goodquality door and window locks and tokeep them locked.

“Don’t leave your possessions lyingaround where they can easily beseen and remember to take yourtreasured possessions home withyou at the end of term.

“Don’t let a few moments ofthoughtlessness ruin your holidays!”

Kerbside collections in December forCathays, Gabalfa and Plasnewyddwill be as follows:

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General waste(black bins/bags) 10/12/14 24/12/14

Recycling (green bags) 03/12/14 10/12/14 17/12/14 24/12/14

Food waste (food caddy) 03/12/14 10/12/14 17/12/14 24/12/14

Waste should be presented after 4pm on Tuesday’s; bins should be removed as soon aspossible following collection.

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The award-winning Get It Out ForCardiff (GIOFC) student re-use andrecycle initiative has concluded its2014 campaign with thepresentation of a cheque for £1973to the Lord Mayor for her chosencharity, Tenovus.

Cabinet Member for Environment,Cllr Bob Derbyshire said, ‘We haveenjoyed another excellent year withnew initiatives built in that reaped

excellent dividends. For example,the project teamed up withEuropean Recycling Platform (ERP)to collect Waste Electrical andElectronic Equipment (WEEE) atthe YMCA collection banks withERP providing the added incentiveof a Kindle prize draw for peoplewho photographed themselvesdonating WEEE. This led to a 30%increase in the collection of theseitems and the prospect of beingused rather than dumped.

‘Food collection also saw anincrease on last year with all foodbeing sent directly to FareshareCymru who sorted the food anddistributed it to families in needacross Cardiff so it’s very gratifyingto see the efforts of all thoseinvolved resulting in real help forthose who need it, the –redirectionof waste away from landfill and theLord Mayor’s charity, Tenovus,benefitting to the tune of nearly£2000. Well done to everyone foranother great year’s work.’

Student Liaison officer, EmmaRobson said, ‘The campaign isexpanding year on year with moreand more students using the GIOFCfacilities to responsibly recycle theirunwanted items both throughout theyear and at the end of the academicterm. We are delighted with theresults and are looking forward tobuilding on the successes bycontinuing the great work with ourpartners next year”.

Get It Out For Cardiffenjoys another successful year

Student volunteers help staff to promote responsible and safe cycling During November, Cardiff Council,South Wales Police, CardiffUniversity Security have beenworking together to promoteresponsible and safe cycling in thecity. Cardiff University Security, SouthWales Police and their volunteershave security marked over 200 bikesduring the Sustainable Travel eventsheld across four Cardiff Universitysites in November.

Environmental Champion volunteershave been carrying out surveys topromote cycle and walking routes in thecity, cycling laws and cycle trainingopportunities offered by Cardiff Council.Volunteers gave out free cycle maps andbells to customers, as well as informationon crime prevention and bicycle security.This year the Environmental Championproject has funding to put ten new bikestands in the area, so volunteers havebeen carrying out surveys to find outwhere students would like them.

Emma Robson, Student Liaison Officersaid, “The Sustainable Travel eventswere ran using a multi-agency approachin order to incorporate all aspects ofcycling such as security, safety, access,confidence, training etc.

There have been concerns raised fromresidents about cyclists cycling onpavements and without lights, andalthough it is not clear whether theperpetrators are University students, wehave taken this into consideration andincorporated this into the advice we aregiving out at the SustainableTravel events.

We were thrilled to offer two Dr Bikemaintenance sessions free of chargethis year thanks to funding from theEnvironmental Champion project andour colleagues at Sustrans. TheSustainable Travel events have beenvery popular with over 200 students andstaff members in attendance across thefour events and we look forward toworking with partners to deliver theseevents in the future, at furtherUniversity locations.”

Want to get involved? Emailenvironmental.champions@svcardiff.org for more information.

The Sustainable Travel events arejust one of many events that theEnvironmental Champion volunteersare involved with. Since the start ofterm they have given out over 250rolls of recycling bags and 100 rollsof caddy liners (including waste andrecycling information) to students inCardiff Students’ Union. They havealso taken part in two litter picks andover 10 community walkabouts inRoath, Cathays and Gabalfa!

University ofSouth WalesStudents’ Union,Rozalind Green-Innes, VicePresident forCardiff.

Hi there! My nameis Rozalind Green,

Roz for short. I’m the new VicePresident Cardiff for the University ofSouth Wales, Students’ Union. This isnow the second year that this role hasexisted within USWSU since themerger. Of course under my remit Icover areas like welfare, academicissues, representation etc. And thisyear we’re off to a flying start!

All three regions have been continuingwith our commitment to studentwelfare and with me personally I’vebeen focusing on accommodation,personal safety and wastemanagement. We’ve also opened abrand new Students’ Union building inCardiff attached to the ATRiuM buildingwhich has given us a new hub andmore easily accessible advice centrefor all of our students.

I’ve been heavily promoting the TidyText service to our students as I feelthis is a great first step in tackling ourissue with waste. It will also be thefocus in a new campaign we’re areabout to roll out to students inengaging them to the servicesavailable to them and to keepCardiff clean!

I’ve also been involved with the policein encouraging students to think aboutpersonal safety when it comes toaccommodation. The Lock it, Hide it,Keep it campaign is in full swing inCardiff especially as the Christmasbreak is around the corner for many ofour students.

We look forward to working with thecommunity throughout the year tokeep Cardiff safe, clean and happy.

Cardiff Metropolitan Students’ Union,Josh Barnett, President and StefKelly, Vice President.

Hello! Our names are Josh and Stefand we are the sabbatical officers atCardiff Metropolitan Students’ Union. Ithas been a positive start to what wehope to be a great year here at CardiffMet Students’ Union. This year wehave employed a new DevelopmentAssistant, Amy Campbell and part ofher role is to increase Cardiff MetStudent Union’s engagement with thelocal community.

Amy has been working on organisingvolunteering projects for students,projects that have taken place so farthis term include; transforming a localPrimary School playground, re-painting a Youth Centre and abeach clean.

We found the highest number ofvolunteers yet to help out with the‘Blackout’ event on Friday 14thNovember and have been raisingmoney for the local charity, CancerResearch Wales, by organising aChristmas Bingo and pop-up clothescharity shop event in the SU.

Amy will also be working with CardiffDigs more closely to get more CardiffMet students to join the EnvironmentalChampions volunteer group and toalso push the “Get it out for Cardiff”campaign at Cardiff Met this year toencourage more of our students torecycle their unwanted items.

We look forward to continuing allcampaigns next year along with findingnew way to get involved withthe community.

Cardiff University Students’ Union,Danial Faraz Alauddin, VicePresident Welfare.

Hi there! My name is Faraz and I am theVice President Welfare at CardiffStudents’ Union. This year the Students’Union published its 3 year strategy planwhich placed emphasis on “Having apositive impact on the university and thewider community”. This has meant wehave focussed on students looking aftertheir local community, and naturally thesabbatical officer team is leading the way.

At the start of term, I helped the local bric-a-brac recycling project ‘Get It Out forCardiff’ where we collect unwantedkitchen items and resell them to the newset of students joining the university thisyear. We managed to raise £1973.27during the process, which I presentedalongside Emma to the Lord Mayorof Cardiff.

We also had our second ever “Blackout“event which involved students goingaround the campus with staff volunteersin order to switch off electric appliances.The buildings are then audited so we canwork out how much energy was saved byswitching off day to day items which areleft on unnecessarily.

We’ve continued our relationship withCitizens UK and Elliot, our Student UnionPresident, represented students at thefounding assembly of the CitizensCardiff. We at the Students’ Union havehad a massive drive for voter registration.When students enrol they automaticallyhad the chance to register to vote, as wellas physical stations where people couldregister in our building. We also have asystem where students can register viaour website too. We have met with localcouncillors and have some excitinggeneral election plans forafter Christmas!

I am looking forward to being involvedwith many different community projectsand campaigns next year.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU…Sabbatical officers are responsible for addressing the issues that affect studentsat their University, and for representing students’ views on an institutional, local andnational level. Unity News would like to introduce you to Sabbatical Officers at theStudent Unions of Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan and the University ofSouth Wales. I work closely with them to ensure campaigns and messages wework on reach our students throughout the city.

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As students start looking foraccommodation in the private rentedsector for the next academic year,Cardiff Digs launches the#AvoidThePitfalls campaign to ensurestudents make informed decisionswhen renting properties. We’ve puttogether a few tips below to give youan overview but you can download thefull advice sheet onwww.cardiffdigs.co.uk

Get involved with the conversation, searchfor #AvoidThePitfalls on Twitter.

Don’t Rush! Don’t be pushed into signingan agreement. Houses become availableall year around. There is no panic so lookaround and don’t feel threatened into anagreement. Please be aware of agentswho insist that all good houses go early –this is not true! You do not need to sign fora property before the Christmas holidays.

Get an accommodation list from yourUniversity – all universities in Cardiffprovide a list of available accreditedaccommodation from private landlords.Cardiff Met get yours on Student Portal oremail accomm@cardiffmet.ac.uk.University of South Wales emailaccom@southwales.ac.uk. CardiffUniversity emailresidences@cardiff.ac.uk

Set aside a time to view houses togetherand be prepared to look at a number ofdifferent houses. Organise a time wheneveryone is able to make all viewings,never look at houses alone

What are you looking for – Set astandard and stick to this – think aboutlocation, distance from university, roomsize needed, necessity of communal area

e.g. lounge or dining area, car parking,double glazing, security, furniture. Makesure you see all the rooms, includinglocked ones, before handing over anymoney.

Be aware of verbal promises of futuremaintenance work to be ready for yourmove in date. Make sure these are writteninto the contract before you sign.

Joined at the hip - Contracts are usuallyjoint, meaning that all tenants who sign itare legally bound by it. There is no noticeperiod. You are stuck with that house andthose people until the end of the contract.You will be responsible for each other’srent and any charges occurred. So beforeyou sign, get advice from yourAccommodation Office and don’t rush.

Seek advice before you look

Cardiff Metropolitan University:University Accommodation Officeaccomm@cardiffmet.ac.uk, StudentUnion advisor Alison Larneralarner@cardiffmet.ac.uk

University of South Wales:University Accommodation Officeaccom@southwales.ac.uk

Cardiff University: Student Advice centre at the Students’Union advice@cardiff.ac.uk

South Wales Fire and Rescue Servicehave, in the last two years, seen anincrease in the number of accidental fireswithin the student population in Wales.Officers would like to take this opportunityto raise awareness around electricalsafety and urge all students to downloadthe electrical safety first app.

Housing Advice

#AvoidThePitfallsin private rentin

g

Contracts Flatmates Budgeting Deposits & Bonds Damp & Mould Responsibilities Know Your Rights

For advice, contact yourUniversity AccomodationOffice or Student Union.

Find us on Facebook orfollow us on Twitter

@cardiffdigs for handy tipsand advice, or visit

www.cardiffdigs.co.uk formore information

download our FREEchecklist & help sheets

for student living

Useful contactsHousing Enforcement02920 871 762

For help with housing standardssuch as damp and mould, firesafety and security.

Housing Options02920 570750

For issues related tobonds/deposits, tenancyagreements and landlord disputes.

Connect 2 Cardiff (C2C)02920 872087

For Council services and generalCouncil queries.

Noise Pollution02920 871650

For issues with household noise,car alarms, dogs barking etc.

Pest control 02920 872934

For issues with rats, mice,bedbugs, etc

Police Student Liaison Officer02920 633420

For community safety issues andcrime prevention advice.

Welsh Water 0800 052 0145

For issues connected to securityon campus and to investigatenoise/disturbances in privatestudent accommodation.

Cardiff University Security02920 874444

Cardiff MetropolitanUniversity Security 02920 416155

University of South Wales01443 482055

For more useful contacts visitwww.cardiffdigs.co.uk

Read all about itHave you got a story you would like to submit? Send it to cardiffdigs@cardiff.gov.ukfor consideration. (300 words maximum, feel free to include images).

If you would like this newsletter in Welsh, please contactEmma.Robson@cardiff.gov.uk

Subscribe to UNITY news To subscribe to Unity News send your e-mail with the word ‘subscribe’ in thetitle/subject to cardiffdigs@cardiff.gov.uk. Unity news is published twice a yearat the end of academic terms in December and June. E-mail addresses will not besent to third parties or used for any other contact.

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Rhifyn 12

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New film gives crimeprevention advice to studentsA new film created by South WalesPolice and Cardiff Council which targetsthe tens of thousands of students whocome to Cardiff every year has beenlaunched.

The two minute production offers helpfultips and advice in particular to studentswho live in rented accommodationacross the city – either run by privatelandlords or specialist studentaccommodation.

Bringing together a combination of filmand animation the short film highlightsthe ways in which studentaccommodation may become vulnerableto possible criminals and what can bedone to make their term-time homesmore secure.

Student liaison officer PC Tim Daviessaid: “We have been working inpartnership with Cardiff Council to makestudents more aware of the need to bevigilant and to take care of theirpossessions.

“This film has come about as the resultof a joint initiative involving local authorityhousing enforcement officers and SouthWales Police Community Safety Team,supported in its implementation by theLocal Neighbourhood Officers.

“We have shown the film to landlords’groups who have all agreed to post it ontheir own websites.

“The arrival of students into the city forthe new university year tends to see aspike in burglaries and we hope this filmwill make students more aware of theirsurroundings and take appropriatemeasures to keep their homes secure.

“In the coming weeks we will beaccompanying council officers on visitsto houses in the city checking thatsecurity is up to standard and also toeducate occupants.

“Burglary can be an extremely traumaticexperience and South Wales Police iscommitted to preventing break-ins andarresting those responsible. We askresidents to take the simple steps oflocking their doors and windows tosignificantly reduce their chances ofbeing a victim of burglary.”

Councillor Daniel De’Ath, CabinetMember for Safety, Engagement andDemocracy said: “The Cathays BurglaryProject has achieved a dramaticreduction in the level of burglaries in thefive streets selected and the project willbe extended into other areas.

“The hard work of the partners in thisproject, and in particular theNeighbourhood Policing Team, hasenabled a strong engagement with thestudent population. As a result a varietyof advice and a number of messagesdesigned to promote the safety, securityand wellbeing of students has beencommunicated.”

You can view the film online atwww.cardiffdigs.co.uk