UoB faces tests as CLO leaves, Cotham students defy party warning

The new academic year has started with two unwelcome developments. First, the University of Bristol’s community liaison officer, ex-policeman Steve Smith, has moved to a new post at UWE after a three-year stint in which he helped stem the tide of student noise. Many residents are sad to see him go.

Second, on Saturday, 21 September, students in Cotham Vale posed a direct challenge to the university authorities by going ahead with an advertised house party despite direct intervention by community-liaison staff, as well as police officers deployed on the UoB-funded anti-noise patrol, Operation Beech.

Having been alerted by residents in Cotham Vale and in Trelawney Road, whose houses back on to the Cotham Vale gardens, I went to see (and hear) for myself. Arriving around 10pm, I found not one but two parties in progress, just two doors apart.

Given these are terraced houses, the impact on other residents must have been considerable—sound and vibration travel easily through linked structures. Almost immediately I bumped into a resident I know who lives further down the street. She was remonstrating with students on the steps of one of the party houses (not, as it happened, the one that had notified its intent).

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Moments later two officers with the Beech patrol (not called by either of us) appeared at our sides. They spoke to these students at length, then visited the other party house, where things were just starting to get lively.

Beech may have had some small influence on the first house: Someone lowered the blinds to mask the flashing blue disco lights, and the front door stayed mostly shut, although there was some noise around 11pm when a large group of people left.

At the other house, there was little evidence of any attempt to rein in noise. Students at this address had let other residents know they were planning a party. As a result, a university official reportedly spoke to the students the day before the event and delivered a letter spelling out UoB's rules and possible consequences if complaints were received. Both the university and residents had also made earlier efforts to ensure all students living in Cotham Vale knew the rules.

Those efforts, and the follow-up visit on the night by Beech officers, seem to have had no effect.

During the hour or so I spent in the street, people went in and out of the house every few minutes. With each entry or exit, a bright sensor light illuminated the steps, and the open doorway emitted a blast of noise—shouts from those inside, mixed with a constant beat. Then the door usually closed again with a sharp metallic thud. Things outside the house weren’t quiet, either—groups arriving and leaving shouted or talked noisily as they walked along the street and up or down the steps.

In addition to what was happening at the front of the house, the party also overflowed into the garden at the rear. Video taken by a Trelawney Road resident shows people standing outside the property, drinking, talking and collectively producing a level of noise he described as “quite extreme”.

Some people left the house at about 11pm, but a resident reports that noise from the garden continued until almost midnight.

The students who hosted this event now face a reckoning. Residents have submitted formal complaints accompanied by videos (the university says complaints must be supported by evidence). UoB will also receive reports from the Operation Beech officers.

Under the university’s community-behaviour rules, which all students agree to when they sign their contract, “Excessive noise or gatherings that cause a disturbance to members of the local community” constitute a disciplinary offence. This was repeated and spelled out clearly in the letter UoB delivered to the house before the party.

(A party of this kind probably also breached the students' tenancy agreement, so they may hear from their landlord, too.)

The university normally deals with first-time offences by way of advice from its community-liaison office as to future conduct. However, repeated behaviour, or cases that are viewed as particularly serious, take a more formal route that is likely to result in penalties.

In the last academic year, according to information published by UoB, 59 students faced disciplinary action for a range of community-behaviour offences (of which noise complaints are usually the most common). Of these, 23 were fined £250 each and 4 were required to pay lesser amounts. Others received suspended penalties or formal cautions, or were asked to sign Acceptable Behaviour Agreements. Only two cases resulted in no further action other than to receive advice.

After Saturday, the community will be watching closely to see where on this scale UoB places a blatant challenge to its efforts to reduce the negative impacts soaring student numbers have on other city dwellers.