As part of my complaint Chesterfield council have handed me a booklet to fill in.  For those of you who are not at this stage yet below is a copy of the guidance notes I have to adhere to.  If you are writing your own logs this may hopefully help you gather the correct sort of information until you get to the official log level.

Disclaimer:  This is from Chesterfield Council.  I do not know how it may or may not differ from your own local council - I offer it as guidance only.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

These notes are to help you keep a record of events that are relevant to your complaint of anti-social behaviour or nuisance.  If you have been asked to keep a record, please follow these simple guidelines.

In serious cases, where legal action is needed, this record may be produced as evidence if you agree.

The points listed below relate to the contents of your record.  Those listed under "General Points" are essential things to take into account if your record is to be used as evidence, particularly in any court action.

Those points listed under "Specific Points" are there to give you an idea of the information you should include for each incident you record.

General Points.
1.  You must write the record yourself.
2.  Incidents should be recorded immediately or as soon as possible after they have happened.
3.  Only include incidents which you saw, heard or were involved in.  Do not include anything that someone else has told you happened, no matter who they are.  If someone else wants to record something, they should use their own Record of Incidents.
4.  Make a seperate entry for each incident.
5.  Each page must be signed and dated.
6.  You do not have to use all of the pages before returning this form.
7.  Please return this form immediately after the date shown on the front.  If there are any incidents that you think we should know about before then, please contact the person given at the end of this form to discuss.

Specific Points:
1.  The date and time of the incident with am or pm.
2.  Where the incident occurred.
3.  What you were doing at the time e.g. watching tv, asleep, reading, walking to the shops etc.
4.  Write down the incident as it occurred in a logical order.
5.  Wherever possible, refer to people by name, if this is not possible write down a description of the person or people and their name and address if known.
6.  If the problem is noise, describe the noise as best you can and where it seemed to come from. For instance, if it was loud music, was it from a TV, radio or hi-fi?  Do you know what type of music it was and the artist?  Do you know which TV or radio programme it was?
7.  If there is verbal abuse, try to record the exact words used, even if you find them offensive.
8.  If the police are called, make a note of the officers name and number and ask for the incident or crime number.  This will help trace the call on the police computer.

Hope this helps someone.