St Andrew's resident calls for action against drunk students
A resident in Cromwell Road, St Andrew's, has complained to both universities, describing student behaviour in her area.
(I have not recorded this in my incident list because it's outside the area the list typically covers. However, this account demonstrates that the problems we are experiencing in the "UoB area" are also being felt elsewhere. I believe students living in Cromwell Road are most likely to be affiliated with UWE.)
The resident writes: "On Saturday, 11th July, at 22.54, I called the police as the noise and amount of people that were coming and going from number [xx] Cromwell Rd was ridiculously high and social distancing was not being followed.
" ... students were warned by their universities to adhere by these guidelines on the 8th July. Within three days that advice was totally ignored. [The two vice-chancellors sent a joint letter to students.]
"At 2.16am ... I had to call the police again as the whole thing was getting worse. Shouting in the road, bottles being smashed, recycling boxes being thrown around not caring where they land. The shouting from drunken, drugged-up people is extremely loud and if [you] ask them to keep the noise down they get louder. The police arrived within 15 minutes of my second call to them.
".... The people at these parties are likely to have breached the law on indoor meetings as well as social distancing guidelines. It would be interesting to know if any action is taken against these people.
"The disrespectful attitude of students in general that live in BS6 needs addressing. Besides these frequent parties that cause such a big disturbance, these students have no regard or respect that after 11pm we don’t want to hear them talking loudly while they walk home. Every night there are groups that talk and laugh loudly, kick recycling boxes over as they walk home. This is not acceptable at all.
Blood Pressure
"After Saturday night's party, I personally couldn’t sleep and ended up sleeping on Sunday when I should’ve been awake and enjoying the sunshine ... instead my mental health suffered and my blood pressure went sky high ... I had to seek advice from my doctor and now have had to buy a [blood pressure] monitor so this can be monitored regularly as I have never had high blood pressure like this before.
"These people are living here because they are attending universities in Bristol. But why should Bristol residents be continually affected by their behaviour like this and nobody does anything about it?
"Now [the universities have moved to] online studying so we have to put up with them in the daytime too. Not everyone wants to hear repetitive house music every afternoon while trying to relax in their garden. [The] universities need to do something to stop your students behaving in such a disrespectful manner.
" ... There’s plenty of purpose-built student accommodation in the centre of Bristol, so why keep letting these selfish students live amongst families, elderly and disabled people who don’t appreciate the noise and filth they bring with them.
"The police have said they have no powers to stop loud music being played in someone’s property or garden and it’s down to the council.
"The noise pollution team [at Bristol city council] are never available on their emergency number, so loud parties will never get stopped. Something needs to be done."
(Email, 15 July 2020, 12:32, mm)