by Alex Claridge

aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk

A Canterbury residents association is urging the city council to take steps to deal with problems caused by the high proportion of students in its area.

Issues the group wants looked at are connected with noise, parking, rubbish and the general tidiness of some student properties.

The St Michael's Road residents association gave a presentation to the council's Canterbury Area Member Panel on Monday night.

Prof Richard Norman, its vice-chairman, led the talk and said: "The formation of the association was prompted by our close proximity to the University of Kent.

"We are not an anti-student organisation and what we are trying to do is as much in their interest as ours.

"But, Canterbury has the biggest proportion of students of any city in the country and these problems are bound to arise with the growth of houses of multiple occupancy.

"There have been problems with noise, parking and the students seemed intellectually challenged when it comes to the council's alternative weekly collection system."

Photographs showing rubbish strewn across St Michael's Road, a car with ketchup squirted on the windscreen and a garden with bin bags dumped on top of a Mini, spilling their contents were shown to the panel as evidence of problems with students.

Prof Norman said there were also concerns with late-night disturbances caused by students walking through the St Michael's area as they returned to their halls of residence on campus after evenings out.

But he said one of the group's principle aims is to limit the number of student properties or for the council to acquire homes which could then be made available for families to live in.

The retired philosophy lecturer, who taught at Kent for 40 years, wants to see the council to introduce a piece of legislation which would mean that any new conversions to student properties would have to go through the planning process and be judged individually.

"This has become a matter of real urgency," Prof Norman added.

Council spokesman Rob Davies said: "The council will shortly be carrying out a review into houses of multiple occupancy licensing and related matters and decisions about the way forward will be taken after that."

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