Leamington locals turn sour on students

Tensions between students and residents in Old Town Leamington continue to simmer after residents sent a petition to the University of Warwick complaining of student conduct in the area.

Rising student numbers in Leamington have increasingly become a difficulty according to local residents, who stress problems with noise and rubbish levels.

Trevor Seeley, Community Relations Manager for the University, said the petition complained of “excessive noise in the early hours of the morning, domestic rubbish not being disposed of properly, some acts of vandalism – and a general lack of respect shown to other residents.”

James Plaskitt, MP for Warwick and Leamington, also said Old Town residents came to see him to raise some issues. He said, “In most parts of Leamington long term residents and students live in harmony… The problem only arises from time to time in that specific block of streets.”

A meeting was subsequently held between the University and the residents at the end of January.

Seeley called the meeting “amicable” and said the residents explained they were not “anti-student” recognising the problems they were having were not all caused by students, and often came down to individual landlords’ choices on the location of their housing. However, they did want the University and the Students’ Union to address their concerns.

The University also held an internal meeting with SU representatives present, after which an email was sent to students living in the Old Town, on Monday the 16th of February, informing them of the complaints.

The email asked students to be more considerate of their neighbours, stating there had been complaints concerning “general noise and antisocial behaviour in the area, potentially caused by students.”

It advised students to keep noise to a minimum when returning late at night, dispose of rubbish appropriately and asked students to introduce themselves to their neighbours as a gesture of community.

The University also sent the local residents some options with which to move forward, including working with Warwick Volunteers on local community projects, and a “welcome to the community” event hosted by the residents at the beginning of each academic year, with support from the SU and University.

Seeley said, “Both the SU and the University are taking this issue seriously because we do not want anything to tarnish the good reputation of our students – who we all recognise bring a wide range of benefits to the town of Leamington and elsewhere.”

The University is currently waiting for a response for these proposals from the residents.

Plaskitt said that following talks with the University, residents were “reassured” and “impressed with the commitment of all parties”.

The petition follows a row that erupted a few weeks ago between Leamington Councillor Bill Evans and the Students’ Union President Stuart Thomson over the growing student presence in South Leamington, with Evans suggesting students are a “dead weight” on the community.

Many Old Town residents interviewed by the Boar do indeed have problems with their student neighbours. Joe Edge, an ex-Warwick student who still lives in the area, said that the problem came down to numbers, “It’s no one person, just the sheer numbers [of students] in what is a residential area”.

He said the biggest issue he had was with noise, citing a loud party the previous night as an example and called the student houses nearby “effectively halls of residence built on the end of a street”.

Another anonymous local resident, has two young children she was trying to get to sleep. She said, “Students just don’t think about other people… They simply don’t care about their neighbours.”

However, Jennifer Lorch, an ex-Senior Lecturer in Italian at the University of Warwick, said she had no problems. She said, “I’m very happy to have students as my neighbours. They all seem very nice.” She said it was occasionally noisy at night, but that it rarely bothered her.

Students themselves feel a little victimised. Anouska Nithyanandan, a second year Engineering student, said the Council was partially to blame for the problems with rubbish. “We don’t want to have loads of rubbish outside our door. We have a limit of two large bags of rubbish every week and recycling is only picked up every two weeks, with six people in a house that’s just not enough. I didn’t realise people were that upset about bins.”

Kafui Adjogatse, a second year Economics student commented, “In a highly populated student area, it just happens”.

Welfare Officer Steph Jones commented that there had been a “good dialogue” with the residents. She added, “I don’t think we should label students as inconsiderate, both parties need to be more considerate of each others needs. It’s definitely a two way thing.”