Going home for the holidays? Don’t give burglars a break!

The Easter holidays are approaching and many students will be going home to finish coursework, prepare for exams and hopefully find time to have a break. The unfortunate thing is that burglars know that students typically go home during this period, leaving an empty house behind that may have valuables inside. 

Burglars target houses for different reasons but most burglars are opportunists. Students living in shared houses will have 5 times the amount of valuables than someone living alone. This means, 5 laptops, 5 phones, 5 bikes etc for burglars to take. The good thing is that students can take preventative measures to secure their home and property. Follow these simple tips from South Wales Police:

Lock it. Hide it. Keep it.

►   Ensure all doors and windows are locked. It may sound obvious, but you will be surprised how many doors and windows are left unlocked. Make sure your windows and doors are locked, even when you are in.

►   Protect valuables. Never leave expensive items on display and take all valuables home with you. Why don’t you register your valuables for FREE by visiting the national property database www.immobilise.com.

►   Secure the garden. Shut and lock garden gates and clear gardens of items that could be used to force entry e.g. bricks, ladders.

►   Remove obvious signs that it’s a student house. Club night posters in windows and overflowing rubbish in gardens tell burglars that students live in the property. Clear frontages of rubbish and remove obvious signs that it’s a student house, e.g. posters. Find our your next waste collection day at www.cardiff.gov.uk/waste

►   Extra support. Ask your landlord/letting agent or a trusted neighbour to keep an eye on your house during the holidays, and ask them to push through any mail hanging from letter boxes. Use timer light switches when your property is unattended for any length of time, this makes it look like someone is in.

For extra safety advice visit www.south-wales.police.uk or www.cardiffdigs.co.uk , or contact PC Student Liaison Officer Tim Davies on Timothy.Davies@south-wales.pnn.police.uk or 07976277161

Follow South Wales Police and Digs on Twitter, @swpeast and @cardiffdigs

Remember to Lock it. Hide it. Keep it.

Environmental Champions out in force for Go Green week!

The Environmental Champions team will be out in force as Go Green Week launches on Monday 10^th February.  The team has organised activities including green workshops, a litter pick and a community walkabout for each day of the event across Cardiff University and Cardiff Metropolitan University sites as well as the Cathays area of the city.

Cabinet member for Environment, Cllr Ashley Govier said, ‘The Environmental Champions are a very committed team and it’s great to see them so fully involved in Go Green Week.  We have greatly increased our work with the student community with a specialist team operating in Cathays, Roath and Plasnewydd advising all residents on aspects of recycling and food waste collection.  We are also backing our One Planet vision with action on encouraging our communities to act in a more sustainable manner and these events only serve to bolster all the good work going on throughout the year.’

Student Liaison Officer, Emma Robson said, ‘Go Green Week is an excellent opportunity for us to get out there and raise awareness of sustainability issues and it’s great to see so many students volunteering and engaging with their local community. The Environmental Champions are making invaluable improvements to the local area and by encouraging their peers to live more sustainably; they are setting a perfect example for the wider student population’.

The Environmental Champions are supported by Cardiff Council, www.cardiffdigs.co.uk, Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC), and Keep Cardiff Tidy; this partnership project has over 50 members drawn from the public, student community and public bodies such as the police and Cardiff Council.

For more information and to see a full list of events, go to www.cardiffdigs.co.uk 

Best ever year for Get It Out For Cardiff!

Get It Out for Cardiff (GIOFC), the recycling and re-use campaign aimed at students has just concluded its 2013 campaign and enjoyed its best year yet.

The recycling rates have shot up by 14% with a 28% reduction in complaints recorded in the Roath and Plasnewydd areas over the academic year as our new approach to dealing with waste issues here have been implemented.

Donations are being stored
over the Summer

Cllr Ashley Govier, Cabinet Member for Environment was delighted with this year’s success. He said, ‘We have taken the GIOFC concept and introduced key changes as well as changing the general way we deal with waste and litter in the student accommodation areas and the results are there for all to see. We removed the additional weekend collections at the end of term and with our newly installed specialist Roath and Plasnewydd education and enforcement team, promoted best use of the available services such as the weekly kerbside recycling, fortnightly general waste collections and our household waste and recycling centre at Wedal Road.



‘We also promoted the year-round re-use banks provided by our partner, YMCA including the 3 additional banks for GIOFC 2013 and the 18 green sites across the university sites where a huge variety of items including clothing, food, small electrical items, books, CD’s, DVD’s and kitchen items were donated with the food collected re-distributed by Fareshare Cymru to relieve food poverty in our communities.’ 



Donations collected at a Green Zone one week

The total additional waste collected over the GIOFC period was down by 32%, as more people used the regular recycling and waste services correctly, underlining again how the recycling message was hitting home with the new approach meaning fines only had to be issued where necessary. A total of 22 fines were issued this year where our efforts at education and support had been ignored.



Environmental Champions spreading the message
in the student areas!

Cllr Govier added, ‘We cannot afford to rest on our laurels and we will build on this great year. The team has worked tirelessly to improve this historically difficult area to keep clean and I’m so pleased their efforts have been rewarded with such an improvement in recycling rates and reduction in complaints. We also achieved a saving of £26k in the process which just shows what can be achieved by looking again and implementing new and innovative approaches to how we deal an issue that can otherwise detrimentally affect the quality of life for too many people in these communities.’

Proposed 20mph pilot in Cathays and Plasnewydd - Have your say!

Cardiff Council have launched a consultation this week for a proposed pilot area for 20mph speed limits in areas of Cathays and Plasnewydd, which is being funded by Welsh Government through the Safer Routes in Communities project.

It is hoped that, as well as improving road safety and reducing the numbers of those killed or seriously injured on Cardiff roads, introducing 20mph speed limits will also make it easier for people to walk and cycle in the city and create a more sociable environment for people to live. The proposed project in Cardiff will be a ‘signs-only’ scheme. If the proposal is supported by local residents, 20mph limits are likely to be implemented in March 2014.

What do you think of this proposal? Cardiff Council would like local residents to let them know! An online survey can be found at:

English: http://surveys.cardiff.gov.uk/20mph/en/

Welsh: http://surveys.cardiff.gov.uk/20mph/cy/

Further details of the proposed pilot are available on www.keepingcardiffmoving.co.uk/20mph, along with a map of the proposed area, dates of public consultation sessions, an FAQ, and links to more information on 20mph speed limits and campaigns in the UK.

The closing date for this round of public consultation is 12^th August 2013 – please circulate this email and complete the survey before this date. If you have any further queries regarding the pilot, please email 20mph@cardiff.gov.uk

Important notice regarding parking permit applications

From 1 July 2013 the permit office at County Hall will close.

Students who are moving out of halls of residence and into rented accommodation, who are bringing their car to Cardiff, will need to obtain a resident parking permit if they live in a permit area.

All applications to obtain a resident parking permit are to be made by post only and permits cannot be obtained in person at any Council premises.

The postal address is:

Cardiff County Council Parking Services,

PO Box 47,

Cardiff,

CF11 1QB

For full terms and conditions when applying for a permit please visit the website www.cardiff.gov.uk/parking or, alternatively, telephone 029 2087 2087.

The Council are also developing an on-line application system and hope to have this operational later this year.

However, did you know... that estimates suggest bringing a car to University costs approximately £2,200?

Cardiff is a very walkable city and many students choose not to bring their car to University - why don't you make a Cardifference and leave your car at home?

Find out more here: http://cardiffdigs.co.uk/cardifference.htm 

New YMCA banks in Cathays

Another three YMCA banks are being installed in Cathays during the Get It Out for Cardiff campaign throughout the month of June. This is on top of the two permanent banks already present in the area.

 

New YMCA bank on Llanbleddian Gardens

The banks are situated by the Cardiff University Law building, the top of Cathays Terrace by Whitchurch Road and at the end of Llanbleddian Gardens on the corner of Miskin street.

 



Cardiff Council will be teaming up with the Environmental Champions, handing out reusable textile bags to students and residents in Cathays, Plasnewydd and Gabalfa. Textile bags can be filled with unwanted clothes, bags, textiles, books, CD’s/DVD’s and then taken to a YMCA bank.

Emma Robson, Student Liaison Officer, said ‘The new YMCA banks are situated in highly populated student areas and therefore maximise the schemes potential. Last year, the Get it out for Cardiff initiative recycled over 12 tonnes of unwanted items – items that would have otherwise gone to landfill. Having YMCA banks in prominent student locations encourages students to deposit their unwanted items when they move out of their property’.

Get It Out for Cardiff walkabouts

Walkabouts will be taking place in Cathays and Plasnewydd over the next few weeks to raise awareness of the Get It Out for Cardiff scheme. Volunteers are needed to engage with students and residents in the local area, giving them details of their nearest Green Zone and how to recycle their unwanted goods!

We shall be door knocking in Cathays on May 21st, 22nd and 23rd, and then again on June 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. We will target the Plasnewydd area on June 4th, 5th and 6th. The meeting time and place for all walkabouts is on the third floor of the Students Union on Park Place, outside the sabbatical offices, at 4.30pm.

We would very much like for members of the local community to join together with Cardiff students, and give a little time to try and improve the local environmental quality of the area, and ensure that students are aware of the services available to help them keep Cardiff tidy at the end of term and beyond!

For more information, please call Emma Robson on 02920 871808 or email on emma.robson@cardiff.gov.uk