'Roslyn Road Resident' says student noise is 'ruining lives'
Residents in Roslyn Road, which has one of the largest concentrations of student-occupied houses in the area, have complained about disturbance from simultaneous parties on Saturday, Feb 1, 2020.
One person, writing only as "Roslyn Road Resident", sent a strongly worded email to the University of Bristol vice-chancellor, Prof. Hugh Brady; the Police and Crime Commissioner, Sue Mountstevens; local MP Thangham Debbonaire; Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees; and local councillors, among others.
The resident said: "I would like to formally complain in this instance about not just one but two house parties simultaneously last Saturday night on Roslyn Road, extending into the early hours with drinking in the street, litter, screaming, swearing, destruction of bins and the police being called. This type of disturbance is not uncommon from houses on this road. ...
"It is ruining our lives and those of the surrounding houses. ... I have contacted several local and national papers to try and draw more attention to this issue ..."
Call to Police
The resident says the police were called, but had little effect. "The police arrived for less than 1 minute, whilst two on-going parties post midnight occurred simultaneously. The students didn’t even turn down the noise whilst talking to police and then the police promptly left. Is their authority so limited that is the best they can do?"
(Operation Beech, the police patrol paid for by UoB, wasn't on duty on the night in question, so this was a 101 call. The officers may have been called away to another task. Beech officers, assigned to deal specifically with noise, would possibly have had more time to deal with the events, but the patrol doesn't resume duties until Feb 19.)
Roslyn Road Resident's full email appears at the end of this article.
Diana Swain, chair of the Chandos Neighbourhood Association, followed up with her own email to Prof. Brady, saying: "I am sure that you will be dismayed that once again we have such appalling examples of behaviour from some members of the UoB student community."
'Bin Destroyed'
She asks why Operation Beech wasn't scheduled for duty in the first half of February, and requests details of how the university's Move Out, Move In campaign will operate this year. The information campaign aims to provide guidance to first-year students about the challenges they will face when they move out of halls into rented accommodation in their second year. Last year, the university revealed that its campaign had reached only half of first-years, meaning 2,000 to 3,000 students may not have got the message.
Besides Roslyn Road Resident, others have also given details about the night's events.
One said: "I can confirm the party at No. [x] Roslyn. Started about 11, large groups arriving noisily along Chandos. I was woken at some stage as a group of young men left, kicking a food waste bin and destroying it. Quite a lot of noise ... "
Another said: "It was chaos ... We suffered noise front and back of house. There may also have been another party/gathering at opposite end of the street or coming from Stanley Road, as there was also noise coming from the back garden but that ceased just before midnight.
'Urinating in Street'
"At one point it sounded like there were 30 or so students in the street chanting, shouting, screaming and singing but we couldn’t see how many ... That was about 12.30pm which is when I chose to put in earplugs as I need sleep. (I am 7 months pregnant.)
"My husband moved his car off the road around 11.30pm as it was parked at that end of the road and likely to get damaged—this has happened before.
"I heard another resident shouting at the students to be quiet around midnight. I also witnessed three male students coming out of No. [x] together, stand in a line between three separate parked cars and urinate in the street directly opposite my house.
"The street was a complete mess Sunday morning."
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Roslyn Road Resident's email in full [I have redacted some identifying details]
Hello all,
The noise in the community caused by University of Bristol students is ruining the lives of many with little being done to effectively combat it.
University of Bristol
The University has made the decision to disband the Community Liaison Group with little to replace it. On top of this there has been no communication to communities about this change. The University appears to be trying to take even less accountability for the impact of its students on the city. This level of ongoing and unhindered disruption is completely unreasonable and I would urge the university to take a stronger stance. How is it that students can have such a blatant disregard for their community and still get away with it.
Bristol Council
The noise on our street is an on-going issue and the council has done little to combat it. The existing noise complaint system is completely unfit for purpose. For example, the students on our road rotate which house has a party over the course of two weeks, making your 14 day noise diary, and your approach of ignoring infrequent offences completely redundant. I attach evidence if there is any doubt of the scale, noise and disruption of the parties that are a regular occurrence.
[This refers to an attached video file.]
Avon and Somerset Police
Thank you for attending under incident number AS-20200201-[xxxx]. I appreciate you did not have to. Unfortunately it was used to little effect though. The police arrived for less than 1 minute, whilst two on-going parties post midnight occurred simultaneously. The students didn’t even turn down the noise whilst talking to police and then the police promptly left. Is their authority so limited that is the best they can do?
Andrew Waller
Thank you for all you are doing to fight this. I’m happy if you want to put a listing of these parties on your website.
Cotham Representatives
Thank you for your work to limit HMOs. In our road alone 50% are HMOs. They are all neglected and deteriorated. HMO regulation should aim to keep the houses in a good state of repair and limit their impact of the community, which has clearly not factored in recent council decisions to approve them. Houses like these should not be allowed to keep their HMO licence, not alone allow anymore in.
Bristol Representatives
I hope you appreciate the seriousness and extent of the disruption and the impact to the quality of life that this has, as well as how little is being done to resolve it. Music, shouting and abuse multiple times a week until the early hours should not be something we tolerate just because we live within a few miles of a University. Please do what you can to hold those accountable or empower those that want to overcome this.
Bristol University Community Liaison Manager
I would like to formally complain in this instance about not just one but two house parties simultaneously last Saturday night on Roslyn Road, extending into the early hours with drinking in the street, litter, screaming, swearing, destruction of bins and the police being called. This type of disturbance is not uncommon from houses on this road. The two houses at fault (this time) were number [x] and number [x]. I assume they are UOB, as they refused to tell me - pretty much all of the houses on this road are UOB houses. If not I will follow up with UWE. I attach a sample video but have many more.
It is ruining our lives and those of the surrounding houses. The students are winning and it is only going to get worse. I have contacted several local and national papers to try and draw more attention to this issue as well. I will follow up on this email to everyone involved in two weeks' time to give an update on who has come back to me and what has been contributed in order to stop things like this happening again on a weekly basis.
Regards
Roslyn Road Resident
[I followed up with RRR to explore some of the details and offer support. AW.]