The story so far

New visitors to this site, and residents new to the area, may not be fully aware of the long history of problems that the expansion of Royal Holloway has imposed upon the community. So, to bring those readers up to speed, here is a potted history of some of the events that have brought us to this point:

2009	As Royal Holloway student numbers increase, ASB associated with those students makes the front page of the local newspaper.
2009	Surrey Police announce that they have devised a strategy for dealing with noise and ASB caused by students of Royal Holloway.
2013	Royal Holloway begins work on a 20 year plan for its main campus.
2014	Concerns raised by residents during public consultations on Royal Holloway’s Master Plan are largely ignored by the university.
2015	RBC Planning committee approves the Royal Holloway estate plan in principle but notes that the interests of the residents should be balanced against those of the university.  This was largely ignored by Royal Holloway subsequently.
2015	Community liaison meetings, where local residents could meet with Royal Holloway to discuss concerns affecting the community, were stopped by Royal Holloway.
2020	Individual face-to-face meetings for residents with complaints were stopped for Covid but never reinstated.
2021	Dr Ben Spencer MP responds to residents’ concerns and convenes a meeting with local councillors, and representatives of Surrey Police, Royal Holloway and the Students’ Union to discuss reports of ASB by students of Royal Holloway.
2022	More than twelve years after announcing they have a strategy for dealing with noise and ASB caused by students of Royal Holloway, Surrey Police reports to the Runnymede Crime and Disorder Committee that student ASB around Royal Holloway is an ASB ‘Hotspot’.
2022	RHUL announced its plan to grow further by a ‘modest’ increase in student numbers of 25%.  No public consultation was undertaken.
2022	‘100 Gnats’ awareness campaign for residents was started.
2023	‘We Need To Talk About Royal Holloway’ website launched to help and inform residents on issues caused by the university’s presence and expansion.
2023	RHUL initially refuses to meet with residents to discuss issues affecting the community until local residents call for an event to show their strength of feeling for the damage taking place.
2023	Following a visit to see the university’s Provost, Tracy Bhamra, and discuss the salient problems affecting the community – ASB, Parking and HMOs –  we were told that the college was committed to mitigating its negative impact and this would be worked on over the summer.  It transpired though, that the university only refreshed its messages to students.
2023	Following prolonged dissatisfaction with the efficacy of Royal Holloway’s ‘Runnymede Consultative Group’ meetings and a belief that issues raised on behalf of the community were routinely dismissed by the university, local Councillors propose a new format of meeting to specifically focus on key problems.