The University of Lincoln has received a number of complaints from residents regarding noise in the West End.
The concerns have been raised by West End dwellers, regarding the levels of noise late at night and early in the morning when students are leaving and returning from nights out in town.
Student and West End resident, Chris Carter said: “I live far enough down West Parade that I never really notice it too much. Although, one night, some drunken person did spend a solid two minutes trying to get in our front door at about 4am.
“I don’t know whether they thought it was their house or a friends, but they were quite persistent and rang the bell and fiddled with the lock for ages.”
He added: “Sometimes when we go out to a pub quiz and head home around 11pm, it’s about the right time for all the drunken people heading to clubs, and we always pass several groups of them on West Parade heading home.
“They are exactly what you would expect – drunk students shouting and generally being boisterous and making fools of themselves. That’s what you get when you live in a city where the biggest demographic is students between the ages of 16 and 24.”
Another student resident of West Parade, Ellie Allerston, has directly been affected by the disturbances: “The disturbances haven’t been too bad, but we have been awoken in the early hours of the morning by loud, drunk students. I think it’s probably when they are returning from a night out.
“It’s not that bad for us because we are students, but there are families that live on West Parade and a school at the end of the road.”
Allerston recalled an incident that occured: “My housemate was woken up at 3am by people running down West Parade and laughing loudly. When we went out the next day we noticed that several wing mirrors on the cars had been tampered with.
“The glass in my wing mirror had been totally smashed. They hadn’t just broken the mirror but the plastic which held it in place, meaning I had to take it the garage.”
She continued: “It cost me £66 as a result of a drunken prank which I was very angry about. I definitely think that students are to blame and should think more wisely about their actions. As it was parked directly outside of my house, I expect it to be safe and respected by others.”
Another West End resident, Lindsay Westgarth said: “One night after midnight, a group of lads were chanting, obviously heading on a night out. They were being loud and probably could be classed as disorderly but it didn’t really bother us.
“I can understand why it would bother some residents as they have children or 9-5 jobs. I think sometimes people heading out are really inconsiderate and are the same on the way back.”
She added: “I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s only students that are out making the noise. I have seen local residents, who have families and live nearby, being loud and abusive on their way back from town on a Friday or Saturday night. So blame needs to be shared equally on the majority of West End Residents, not just students.”
Director of Student Affairs, Judith Carey said: “We have received a small number of complaints since the middle of September in line with previous years. The complaints we have received up until now have all related to noise nuisance, some from individual houses and some from general street noise, particularly in the early hours of the morning.
“Where a concern relates to a specific address, we contact the students concerned directly. For noise in the street, which will often disturb a number of residents, including fellow students, we decided that a message to all students would be an appropriate initial response.”
I live in the west end area and this week as been as bad as I can remember (living in the west end area for 5 years now.) I think the “SHUSH” signs on the lamp posts and pavements are doing more bad than good. I think the students think “Oh, the residents are complaining about us, what’s their problem? Lets give ’em some”
They don’t seem to realise that there are a lot of people round here that have to be up for work early in the morning, (or maybe they do, they just don’t care.)
I’m all for having fun at the weekend like normal people, but these students just seem to get away with it time and time again, anyone with half a brain knows that the authorities are treating them with kid gloves because of the money they bring to the local economy. So, I suppose that means that the rest of us just have to grin and bare it and be too tired to be a productive member of the work place all because a bunch of spoilt brat teenagers don’t have any consideration for others.
The authorities should have patrols of PCSO’s round the west end at night and when they see the students being loud, they need to remind them about the residents that have to be up for work in the morning. And if they continue, a night in the cells would be a good idea. But we all know the authorities are not going to do that, don’t we? There’s no way Cameron would authorise funding for that. So we either just have to grin and bare it, or move. Very sad!