Local Environmental Quality (LEQ) guidelines

Before you complete the online form to rate an estate, please ensure you read the following guidelines carefully as they will ensure that you complete the form correctly. Several elements are used to measure how clean and safe an estate is. 

Each element needs to be rated as:

• gold = no evidence
• silver = some evidence
• bronze = lots of evidence

Elements

• Litter
  Evidence of litter across environment including shrubs and landscaped areas, individual properties, communal areas, neighbouring areas.
• Graffiti / vandalism
  Evidence of graffiti and vandalism to properties, boundaries, footpaths, roads, streetlights and street furniture.
• Evidence of debris, weeds and moss on edges of roads.
• Chewing gum / cigarette butts
  Evidence of chewing gum and cigarette butts across the environment, including on roads, communal areas, driveways, footpaths.
• Broken paving and other health & safety
  Evidence of broken paving on driveways, footpaths and roads and any other health & safety issue.
• Communal (shared area) repairs
• Unmaintained gardens
  Evidence of poorly maintained areas including individual front gardens, communal areas and any nearby open space.
• Dog / animal mess
  Evidence of animal excrement or rubbish created from owning animals. Check roads, communal areas, driveways, footpaths.
• Weeds
  Evidence of weeds growing on driveways, footpaths, roads, communal areas and any nearby open space.
• Fencing
  Evidence of damage to fencing, fencing in need of painting including replacement panels not painted.
• Unmaintained open space
  Evidence of a poor standard of maintenance of all communal areas and adjacent open space.
• Adjacent boundaries
  Evidence of lack of maintenance to adjoining boundaries, including fences, walls, buildings.
• Bulk refuse
  Evidence of bulk refuse across the estate including on roads, communal areas, driveways, footpaths.
• Abandoned / unroadworthy vehicles
  Evidence of any vehicle or trailer on the estate which is untaxed or unroadworthy and unsightly.
• Damage to street signage and BHP and council signs
  Evidence of damage or tired signage, including street names, BHP, Council or any signage on the estate.
• Lighting
  Evidence of damaged street lighting including smashed lights, flaking paint on lighting columns, graffiti.
• Maintained street furniture
  Evidence of street furniture which is damaged, missing, tired and needs upgrading, covered in graffiti. Street furniture includes meter box cupboards, electricity supply boxes, telephone boxes, post boxes, manhole covers, drain covers etc.
• Internal cleaning of blocks

Pictorial guide

We have produced a pictorial guide of cleaning and grounds maintenance standards for staff, residents and contractors.

This guide is based on the grading system used by our officers when carrying out inspections of housing estates.
 
Our cleaning and grounds maintenance contractors are expected to achieve the gold standard after every visit. A cleaning schedule showing how often your block will be cleaned should always be displayed in the internal communal area of your block.
 
After a visit, your estate should match the gold standard pictures in this guide. If the appearance of your estate does not match the standard then please let us know.
 

Download

You can download this Pictorial Guide in portable document format (pdf)

• Pictorial Guide (.pdf, 1594Kb)

You may need Adobe Reader software to view this pdf file, which is available as a free download from the Adobe website.