Anti-social behaviour in Leeds proving a problem, with complaints from the council involving the Headingley area

Anti-social behaviour is a big problem across the country and Leeds is no different. With a population of around 535,000, according to World population review, Leeds like any other major city suffers from crime.

There were 151 crimes per 1000 people in 2023, making it one of the most dangerous cities in England. From 2015/16 to 2022/23, Leeds and Bradford were the most dangerous cities in England. Why is this though?

Leeds’ population is amongst the highest in the country, and boasts two of the biggest universities in the country, Leeds Beckett and University of Leeds. These two universities attract over 60,000 students a year, boosting the economy and the culture of the city, with 12,000 of the students being international. This brings problems however.

In 2023, 35% of people witnessed anti-social behaviour with one million incidents being recorded by the police across England and Wales. In Leeds alone, there were 8047 investigations of anti-social behaviour from 2013/14 to 2017/18.

Anti-social behaviour is behaviour that causes distress to others and can range from street drinking to littering to being too loud and preventing others from doing their day to day activities.

Person urinating against the side of a bin. — Public urinating is a big problem in Headingley, with quite a few cases.

‘Slightly nervous and sometimes scared’

Headingley resident Jess Green spoke about the behaviour that occurs in the area, “Quite often there’s lots of noise which makes it hard to do things such as work or especially sleeping because students can be really loud when they drink and going out,

“You want to go out and ask them to be quiet but when their drinking you don’t want to cause an argument or face a bad reaction if you do try and speak to them,

“I am slightly nervous and sometimes scared when walking past students who are drinking so it is difficult to deal with and there’s always the feeling that even if you speak to them and it goes well that they’re not going to do what you ask, whether that be how loud the music is or how loud they’re being themselves.”

Two people having an alcoholic drink on the street. — Nightlife is a big part of a students experience, and these two lads take to the street to drink.

Empty bottles of wine left on the street. — Students often leave their rubbish and bottles on the street.

Headingley itself had 105 crimes reported in March 2024 alone, with three of these being anti-social behaviour and violence and sexual offences having the most cases with 37. West Yorkshire Police commented saying, “Anti-social behaviour is a real problem and one we are well aware of and trying our best to cut down on,

“It’s really important that people report the behaviour whenever they see it and work with us to catch the people responsible.”

Burley park, located next to Headingley, is ranked the eight worst area in Leeds for anti-social behaviour, with 300 crimes in the area between September 2020 and August 2021, according the Yorkshire Evening post.

As previously discussed, Headingley has a huge student population, bringing lots of positives for local businesses, bars and pubs and bringing diversity to the area. The Otley run done every weekend brings lots of money across the city and Headingley area. Since COVID however, there has been an increase in the number of groups taking part has increased, causing problems.

Councillor Al Garthwaite has said ‘they create a trail of destruction.’ An article from the Guardian explains that the age range of participants has become older since COVID with groups of men aged 40-50 and above now regularly taking part.

Individuals are now warned that they could face a fine of up to £1000 if they are caught and charged with anti-social behaviour.

How to battle crime

One way to battle crime is to use community activities and sport to promote good habits with people. Sport and exercise has been an excellent way for people to get out of a life of crime. Many cases such as Anthony Joshua show that exercise helps get people out of a life of crime, especially amongst working-class people.

Ex-professional footballer Ian Wright was jailed before his football career took off. He has previously stated that ‘football saved my life.’

Community groups or group exercises such as the Hyde park park run, are great ways for people to exercise and meet new people, increasing social skills, teaching values and improving wellbeing.

One sport that many associate with discipline and hard work is boxing. Many see it as a great way of teaching younger people how to work hard, listen to others and improving discipline and giving a feeling of achievement. Mark Reynolds from Rawthorpe Boxing club says, “boxing has helped many people and is a great way to get fit, boost mental wellbeing and teach people life skills,

“What we do here isn’t about fighting but about teaching people to look after themselves and get themselves healthier.”

Boxer about to hit a punching bag. — Boxer, Adam Morris punching a bag during his training session at Rawthorpe boxing club.

Council issues warning over bins

With the big student population in Headingley, lots of rubbish is generated by them, making certain areas look very untidy. Leeds City Council has recently issued letters to residents from across Headingley and Burley park, warning students about the rubbish and the upset they cause to other residents.

Bag of rubbish leaning against bins. — Some people leave their rubbish out on the street, not even bothering to put it in the bins, attracting rodents.

Bins sprawled across a path and going into the road could prove dangerous for pedestrians.

Lydia Pritchard lives in Headingley and has made complaints about the state students leave the streets in, both with rubbish and bottles: “It makes the area look awful and means you can quite often get rats and other dirty creatures,

Bottles left on a wall after people have been drinking on the street.

“Quite often I’ll be out walking and see bins everywhere, with bags of rubbish everywhere. Bags left on the floor quite often have a split because rats are trying to get inside and it looks awful and smells really bad,

“I also wonder what it’s like for the people having to collect the bings and how it could be more pleasant and easier for them if people were tidier,

“I’d hate to think what someone visiting the area or looking at a house in the area would think. It’s not a big ask for people to take care over their own rubbish and a simple change will have a big impact on others in the area.”

Person looking unhappily about the state of the bins outside their house. — Lydia looking unhappily about the state of the bins outside her house.

Student Eleanor Lockwood also lives in the Headingley area and admitted that most students don’t have much care for the way the area looks: “I think lots of people don’t take much care because they don’t live here permanently so they aren’t as careful which shouldn’t be an excuse but might be one of the reasons,

“I find myself feeling quite guilty about it and ry my best but sometimes you think what’s the point because a lot of others aren’t doing the same,

“It is a simple change however, and I’ll try and be more careful in the future and encourage the others in my house to be careful in the future as well.”

Person putting bag of rubbish inside a bin. — Lydia putting a bag of rubbish inside a bin.

Pritchard also commented on the progress made since the council sent the letter to houses across the area, “since the warning from the council, i think it has been slightly better and people seem to be taking more care but I think we’re still a million miles away from what it could be.”

Drugs across Leeds

Every year on April 4, people from across the city gather in Hyde Park and all smoke marijuana as part of a tradition thats recently come across from America. This event is policed every year but with hundreds of people taking part, it makes it hard for the police to take action.

With the smell and the litter generated, there have been complaints from people, but the police have very little they can do. West Yorkshire Police commented on the event saying, “It’s hard for us because if we arrest one person we have to arrest everybody and that’s just not feasible,

“Our presence on the day was mainly just to make sure that there’s no trouble and to try and stop people from committing other crimes that have a different affect on people.”

After the 420 ‘event’ in 2022, students took to the park to clear up the mess made from the previous day. The day can anger many people with people taking part seen littering, publicly urinating and causing lots of noise as well as a bad smell.

Pritchard also gave her feelings about the event: “It makes a lot of noise but the smell is probably the worst thing to come from it,

“I remember walking past the park and through it slightly the day after and the mess was massive and there were a few people helping clear up but it was awful,

“Similar to the bins in the area, if people want to take part in that sort of an event they should be more conscious about leaving a mess and clear up when they do make a mess,

“I think it’s something that the council should think more about and I feel for the police because there’s not a lot that they can do about it besides make sure that nothing else happens such as violence.”

Graffiti

One aspect of anti-social behaviour that’s very well known is graffiti. The topic causes some controversy with many people saying it makes areas look dingy and dirty but others argue the very opposite saying it can give areas character and allows people to be artistic.

The above picture has a similar story across Headingley, with many houses, walls, bins and other buildings having graffiti across them. Many cases of graffiti have improved the look of buildings in many people’s eyes, perhaps the most famous case being the Marcelo Bielsa mural opposite the Hyde Park pub.

Green also spoke about the graffiti found in Headingley and what she thinks about it: “I think it makes buildings look a lot more interesting and it shows there’s a lot of talent out there in every-day people,

“There’s a lot of murals around Headingley like near the cricket ground there are famous scores painted on walls and signs which help give the area character,

“I think there’s a time and a place for it and it can be insensitive depending on what the artwork says and where it is and I don’t think inappropriate words should be left on buildings but in most cases I think it looks good.”

According to the BBC, graffiti is ‘not a priority’ for the police in Leeds. with resources for the police across England getting smaller over the last decade or so, the police need to be better with their management of their resources and found investigating graffiti was ‘resource intensive’.

Whilst graffiti may not be at the top of the police in Leeds’ agenda, its safe to say that ant-social behaviour is taken very seriously. Whilst encouraging people to report what they see, the police struggle to deal with these issues.

However, the affect of the letter warning from the council to residents in Headingley has had an affect, one which other residents have noticed, so there might be a formula to follow. With the council, police and residents working together, Leeds might be able to resolve its problems with anti-social behaviour, making it a better city for all.

Council issues warning for students around rubbish

Leeds is one of the country’s biggest cities, boasting two well-known, top universities. All of this attracts lots of things including students.

With roughly 60,000 students enrolled at the two universities, Leeds receives a massive boost in economy and diversity from its student population. There are negatives, however.

Graffiti, anti-social behaviour and the cleanliness of the city all take a hit because of the annual influx of students. Many students live around Headingley stadium, helping out local businesses but also increasing the complaints from residents.

Street in Leeds with houses on each side and lots of rubbish bins showing how messy the area is. — Leeds City council have issued a complaint to residents in the Headingley area.

Recently, Leeds City Council issued a letter of complaint to student houses, stating that locals have complained with the “state of the area” regarding rubbish bins.

Headingley resident Hayden Kay stated that “the bins make the area look awful,

“We hope that the complaint made to the council means that the area will look nicer, and students will take more care for the way the street looks,

“The bins attract rats and mice as well as other rodents which also doesn’t look nice,

“As locals we feel that the students don’t work hard enough to keep the area clean.”

Leeds is one of the country’s biggest cities, boasting two well-known, top universities. All of this attracts lots of things including students.

With roughly 60,000 students enrolled at the two universities, Leeds receives a massive boost in economy and diversity from its student population. There are negatives, however.

Graffiti, anti-social behaviour and the cleanliness of the city all take a hit because of the annual influx of students. Many students live around Headingley stadium, helpng out local businesses but also increasing the complaints from residents.

Recently, Leeds City Council issued a letter of complaint to student houses, stating that locals have complained with the “state of the area” regarding rubbish bins.

Headingley resident Hayden Kay stated that “the bins do make the area look awful,

“We hope that the complaint made to the council means that the area will look nicer, and students will take more acre for the area,

“The bins attract rats and mice as well as other rodents which also doesn’t look nice.”

Reflection week 1

In week 1 we learnt the basics of what the course was going to be about and what would be expected of us going forward. Going into the unit I was slightly apprehensive about it because photography is something I’ve never been interested in that much. However, I do like looking at photographs and looking into photos of things that I find interesting such as sport or music.

I feel this unit could be good for me because it will either show me that there’s something else I’m interested in or show me that I’m not bothered about it. It does however, almost add another string to my bow and allows me to gain experience in something that employers may be interested in.

The task for the week was to go out and photograph something and then write a short story about it. Immediately thought of anti-social behavior and student behavior as there’s lots of bins at the end of our road. I also remembered that the council had sent out a letter to houses in the area saying that local residents were upset about the state of the road and how messy the bins were.

Reflection week 2

For this week we received feedback on the workshop task from last week as well as looked into the different styles of photography such as documentary or reportage. The lecture interested me as I didn’t have any idea about the different styles there were and what they all did.

The feedback from the previous weeks task focused mainly on the photo I took which I personally quite liked and thee feedback I got was that barring a few technical issues, the photo was good. This pleased me as technical issues can be sorted when we learn about them later on in the module. For a first attempt at it, it could have been a lot worse.

One piece of feedback I got back was to add into the picture any subjects that I interviewed in the article.

This week’s task was to research and decide what type of photography we would choose for our project. I chose documentary style as I think it will suit me the most and allow me to focus on a variety of topics.

Reflection week 4

This week, for the first time we went out and took photographs. We were tasked with taking pictures with different F-stop, which adjusts the focus of an image and takes your images to the next level of quality.

It was quite interesting learning about something different with regards to how to make your pictures better and more interesting. It means that from now on I can focus on a part of the image I want to more. This will be helpful for the module but also for general photography.

Whilst out, I took a number of photographs of different things from bins to other people to statues. This will help increase my photography skills and make my pictures better.

Learning about the F-stop was interesting and different.

Reflection week 3

This week was all about learning and getting to grips with photoshop and how to post produce photographs, to elevate the standard of your pictures. We learnt about how to change the angle of a photo and resize as well as turn a portrait image into landscape. This lecture was very useful as it showed us skills that will be important for the rest of the unit but also for other modules and potential career options.

I think that photoshop will be pretty simple with practice and will help elevate the quality of my images when and if it is needed.

To start with, I found it a little difficult to navigate the software and find where everything is but once I had done this, the rest was relatively simple. I think the hardest technique to do was to change the angle of an image. I will need more practice with this if I’m to get better and incorporate it into my images.

Reflection week 5 and 6

These two weeks were both online instead of in person lectures. This presented a few challenges for us as online lectures aren’t usually as engaging and it’s harder to get the most out of the lecture. However, in both lectures I took away information that will be important and I will make sure to use this in my assessment.

In week 5 the lecture was mainly talking about ISO and shutter speed, which is useful for taking pictures of people and things in motion. The workshop task for this week hasn’t been done yet for me but I know we have to take a picture with shutter speed and capture something in motion.

I found week 6 more interesting and useful for me because it was one to one meetings where I spoke about my assignment and what I was planning to do with it. I got some good feedback and some good ideas which made me feel better and more confident with the whole thing. Ruth also gave me the name of a photographer that I could use as a mood board and to get some ideas and inspiration from.

After weeks 5 and 6 I feel quite confident and calm about the assessment and the deadline for it.

Reflection week 7

This week was about getting to grips with photoshop and editing images and changing the lighting and contrast of a couple images. I chose to edit a picture I took of will walking under scaffolding as the darkness needed changing and making lighter so you could see the image better and all the details.

In summary, the changes made to the photo increased the quality, as the details were easier to make out and the person in the photo wasn’t too dark.

The second image I edited was a sunset where there was a harsh difference between the sunset and the rest of the image and the contrast needed softening.

In the original, you can see that the sunset is far too bright and the rest of the image is hard to make out because of the brightness and the contrast. In photoshop, to solve this I decreased the contrast and the brightness and the hue of the image. This made the image much better as the drama of the sunset was still there but turned down to a level where you could make the rest of the image out better.

Week 8 extra credit and reflection

Extra credit

For the selection process of the pictures I’ll choose, I plan to take an overall look at the images I’ll take. For the ten photos (roughly) I’ll probably take in the region of 25-40 images, if not more. Whilst taking pictures I’ll also be interviewing the relevant people which will also steer me in the choice of photos I make.

Whilst interviewing, I will also take photos with the subject interviewees in the picture as well. This will help the story and move it along and give a face to the interviews as well.

Because of the type of photography I’ve chosen which is documentary reportage, I won’t be spending much time with photoshop because I don’t want to change and affect the images as this wouldn’t be documentary style and would alter the story. Because of this I will have to choose images that look good as they are and not need much editing.

Reflection

For this week, the lecture was about RAW and JPEG images and the difference. The main difference is the detail and the size of the image files. In a RAW image, there’s much more pixels, making the picture more detailed but a much larger file size. This makes JPEG much better for social media and what I will be using (also partly because I can’t shoot in RAW image). However, at a professional level RAW is probably a necessity due to the increase in detail.

To finish the workshop off I went back to a previous task where I had to edit a couple photos. One of the photos needed a re-edit as the contrast and the brightness wasn’t quite right so I corrected this and added it to my existing post. Any experience with Photoshop can only be a positive.

Research project

For my project i have chosen to do documentary style photography. Documentary style photography provides a record of real events, places and events. This means that it aims to capture real-life settings and situations. This style of photography will suit me I think as it allows me to look into a wide range of situations and means that I can get the best types of photos which interest me.

Documentary photography goes back to the 19^th century. The earliest examples of documentary photography can be seen with Philip Delamotte and Matthew Brady who documented the American civil war in the 1860’s.

The techniques shown in documentary photography include being open to life so you can capture anything, capture emotions and research your object. This all adds to the overall quality of any picture taken.

Perhaps the biggest challenge with documentary photography is that you can’t influence the picture. This means you might not always get what you want in your pictures, making it harder to tell the story that you want to.

This picture is one of the most famous pieces in history. It shows the construction of a skyscraper in the early 1900’s. In the photo you really get the sense of how tall the building is/will be and how much danger these men are in and yet seem so relaxed about it.

This photo is also extremely famous. This is the photo behind the photo of the men having lunch on top of the skyscraper. Once again, you get the sense of peril and height. The tall building in the back helps to add perspective as you can see he’s level with the very top of the building. The name of the photographer is unknown.

This photo now that we have the knowledge of what happened after it shows the popularity and the fame of the Beatles. We also know how far they had to go in the rest of their career but this photo still gives a sense of the fame and popularity they’d generated. You can also see the excitement in their faces as they set out to conquer America.