TOWN AND GOWN STRUGGLES | | PROUD DAY | Students' extra curricular activities anger locals |
Universities are expanding at a rapid rate - latest figures show 40% of 18 to 30-year-olds are in higher education. But is this influx of fun-seeking freshers putting extreme pressure on local communities? Going to university - it's rarely just about getting a degree. You've escaped your parents for the first time and you're determined to make the most of every moment. Even if that sometimes means living to excess. Inside Out Extra investigates whether town and gown are sucessfully co-existing in the East Midlands. Bad behaviour| "We've become experts in vomit" | | Rosie Peddle, Loughborough resident |
For years bad student behaviour has been a national joke typified in the classic TV comedy The Young Ones, but Rosie Peddle has experienced this first hand.
Rosie's family lives in the Storer Road area of Loughborough where around 70% of the terraced houses are inhabited by students. One in four of the Loughborough population is a student during term time. She says, "Takeaways through letter boxes, car front tyre deliberately let down. Tin can football is also very popular at 3am.  | | Rosie Peddle: Tired by late night student fun |
"There's something called 'car surfing', students having fights with powerful water pistols. We've become experts in vomit as well. This is life in Loughborough! "It is mentally and physically debilitating to be constantly woken. It's almost like a sleep deprivation exercise." One student says not all students behave this way, "You're going to get a minority who are going to cause trouble, because they are young teenagers to early 20s and it's always going to happen." Moving onRosie is determined not to move house to escape the students, but many of her neighbours have given up the fight. One of those was Angela Jarram. For 65 years she lived the quiet life in a thriving community. She never imagined living anywhere else. "We always said we'd leave Roseby Street in a box!" But as more and more students moved in, Angela's life became a misery. "We were forced out," says Angela, "nobody was helping, nobody was listening to the people in the area, so we had to move for peace of mind." StudentsInside Out Extra put the residents' feelings to students in Loughborough.  | | Student: Surprised by residents' misery |
Some were surprised and unaware of the residents' misery. One student tells Inside Out, "Everyone that I've met here thinks we all get along like a house on fire and we all have fun." Others agree with the residents, that students aren't the best neighbours. Another student says, "There's a family two houses down from me - a big family. If I was them, I would move away straight away, but it's cheap." Others highlight the positive impact which students have on the town. Another student says, "I probably wouldn't like to live in Loughborough long-term in a student area, but at the end of the day, the students are supporting the town and supporting a lot of local jobs." University actionThe problem for local people is that student accommodation on the campus hasn't grown at the same rate as student admissions. This forces more students to live in local communities. John Town, Registrar of Loughborough University, says they are trying to tackle this issue, "The plans that we have for additional accommodation are in thousands, probably about 2,500 places on campus that we are currently planning. "No matter what happens, the centre of the town is where it is, the university is where it is, there is always going to be a lot of traffic.  | | John Town: Planning more accommodation |
"Out main aim is to get them from A to B as quickly and quietly as possible." But do these words mean anything to local residents who have suffered from years of broken sleep? Do they really feel the universities are taking their problems seriously? Rosie says, "It's not the students' fault that they are young, occasionally daft and occasionally drunk. "I'm sure that they think they are going to do the best job that they can for the university, but in the process they seem to have forgotten that they have got neighbours." It's clear that living next to certain student neighbours is no fun. With more students arriving in the East Midlands each year, clearly the joke is wearing thin. Rosie's hoping that the plans John has outlined will finally improve the situation. But for Angela it's all a bit too late - she's now having to rebuild her life in another part of town. | 
Inside Out Extra: Wednesday March 24, 2004