It seems we’re not the only place with issues…
The “studentification” of peaceful localities is destroying communities, says Liz Morris, secretary of the residents’ association for the Brynmill and Uplands area of Swansea. Transient populations of students with no long-term interest in the area turn up for eight months of the year, party hard, dump their rubbish to fester on the streets, crowd residential roads with their cars and make a noise late into the night, she says. Come the summer, she adds, they disappear, leaving “ghost” streets behind them. Many families have sold up – to private landlords – and fled to quieter parts of town.
A slightly simplistic representation of the position but not unrecognisible.
And the solution….
A university lettings agency has been launched, giving landlords an incentive to bring their properties up to a good standard by reducing the management fee according to the quality of accommodation. The idea, says Price, is that students are more likely to respect a property and a neighbourhood if they’re not presented with digs that are a total dump.
Then all students need to work out is how to operate the volume knob and put their rubbish out on the right day.
It’s that last bit which seems to me to be particularly challenging.
