Post 2 of 10 – Background

So, some background….

Over the last academic year my family and I were regularly disturbed by a student House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) that caused us utter misery.

In the second instance (we hoped the first was a one off) we reported the house to RHUL and were advised that action had been taken and the ASB should stop. It did not – a year of disturbed sleep and frequent emails to RHUL ensued.

At some point, about half way through the academic year, I had an online meeting with RHUL. I was advised by them that in their eyes they had an effective conduct procedure for managing ASB. They added though, that management of student ASB beyond the campus walls was difficult. It was also implied that ASB was not a significant problem; that reports were low and that according to their statistics ASB was in decline.

Slightly taken back, I decided to canvas some of my neighbours. Of the 12 households that took part in a mini survey, all reported that they had been significantly disturbed by student ASB. 50% said that they had reported ASB to RHUL while 25% did not know how to report ASB. Of the 50% that had reported a complaint to RHUL, 50% found that the action taken to resolve their complaint was ineffective. Another notable observation was that 50% had stopped reporting ASB as they felt doing so was a waste of time.

In mid June, I copied our new councillor, Andrea Berardi, into yet another complaint about the problematic HMO. He replied highlighting that persistent ASB by a small minority of RHUL students was endemic across Egham and Englefield Green.

We met and agreed it would be beneficial to run a short campaign to achieve the following goals: to raise awareness about student ASB in the community; to inform residents that are affected by student ASB on how they can make a complaint to RHUL; to highlight to RHUL that student ASB is a community wide problem deeper than their current statistics indicate; to seek from RHUL and implement a conduct policy that is effective at managing student ASB in the community.

At this point I feel I need to highlight that my family and I like the community we live in. We like the fact that we live in a university town and also a community that is diverse in many ways. I also need to point out that we like the majority of students and also know that young adults like to go out, party and socialise.

To recap from the first post, our upset is with the few students that are regularly antisocial – especially those that have been warned about their ASB yet continue. However we are more disappointed with RHUL. We think they could and should do better with managing student ASB in the community.

I hope this post helps explain the genesis to this campaign. More to follow early next week.

Best

A Gnat