Student Noise

Bournemouth Environmental Health and Consumer Services Report

Out of hours service - Student Noise 2009 - 2010

Agreement was reached between Bournemouth University (BU), The Arts University College Bournemouth (AUCB) and Bournemouth BC Environmental Health & Consumer Services (EH&CS) to work in partnership dealing with complaints of noise nuisance complaints attributed to the student population. The Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) agreed to provide joint funding of £10000 to support Duty Officer services between 22:00 - 02:00 hours on Friday and Saturday nights (£5000) and further out of hours officer services to a maximum of 256 hours on other nights identified by the HEI's (£5000).

An understanding was reached with the HEI's that all student noise complaints, at the same time as they were being investigated by EH&CS would be referred to the relevant institution and followed up accordingly. In addition to this BU also agreed that they would invoke formal university disciplinary procedures where Noise Abatement Notices were served on individual students.

In the 2008/2009 academic year noise complaints were received in respect of 90 student properties the majority of which were in the Winton area. In September 2009 a letter was sent to the incoming student tenants of these properties informing them of the previous history of noise issues related to their properties, how to avoid this occurring during their tenancy and how noise complaints are investigated and resolved. Copies of the text of this letter were provided to BU to send to students in halls of residence via the university intranet. Similar text was provided to the Unite Group (Purbeck House) and Signpost Housing (Okeford House) to send to their tenants.
The Friday and Saturday night out of hours service commenced in May 2009. The HEI's identified the following weeks (16 in total) as being potentially problematical in respect of student noise. Monday and Wednesday nights were identified as the target nights for working (22:00 - 02:00 hours).

• All of September and October
• The first two weeks of December
• The last two weeks of January
• Mid May to mid June.

No breaches of Abatement Notices were witnessed although complaints continued to be received about several student houses where notices had been served. Where there were continuing complaints the matter was taken up with the relevant HEI and in some instances the student residents were summoned to an interview with representatives of the HEI and the Council.

Most of the complaints dealt with related to one-off incidents although a number of them were significant events that had a major impact on the surrounding residents. One of these was a party in Stanfield Road that was closed down with police assistance with an estimated 300 persons leaving the semi-detached property. Others that stand out from the officers point of view were in Muscliffe Road where beer was poured over the officers as they served the Abatement Notices and another house in Stanfield Road where they were manhandled off the property.

The number of student noise complaints has increased by 25% this year and this is almost certainly due to the public being aware that there is a contact telephone number and an out of hours noise service that will respond. The student population has also become more aware that action will be taken when they disturb other residents and the fact that the HEI's and the Council are working in partnership sends out a clear message to them. Undoubtedly there is also the deterrent effect of carrying out this work and a likely increase in student noise complaint numbers if it is not continued.

This work is an ongoing necessity due to annual student turnover, which means the issue will never be completely resolved and requires continued vigilance. Each new intake of students involves us in repeating the messages, reinforcing the need for responsible, neighbourly actions, and dealing appropriately with the small minority who for whatever reason don't adhere to the law or the good guidance provided by the partners in this project. It is hoped that, following discussion of the above, the HEI's will continue to support this work in the 2010-2011 Academic Year.

In practice four nights a week were worked dealing exclusively with pro-active and reactive visits in respect of student noise between the following dates:

4th September -10th October
4th December- 18th December
18th January - 30th January
19th March-2nd April

The officer hours worked out of hours during these periods was as follows:

September 2009 140 hrs
October 2009 20 hrs
December 2009 90 hrs
January 2010 80 hrs
March 2010 90 hrs
Total 420 hrs

The work was prioritised with officers responding first to any new complaints that came in whilst they were on duty. Thereafter monitoring visits were made to properties with existing Noise Abatement Notices, properties most recently complained about, Purbeck House, Okeford House and finally streets with a history of student noise problems such as Green Road, Cardigan Road, Stanfield Road.

During the course of the academic year 129 cases were dealt with, 90 involving student houses and 39 at Purbeck House or Okeford House halls of residence.

The halls of residence cases were largely picked up by proactive monitoring although there have been complaints about Purbeck House (including some received via the police) and Okeford House. There was some value in visiting the halls of residence on these nights because it provided the opportunity to talk to the duty security staff, work with them to locate and check problem rooms that were the source of the noise when a complaint was received and jointly talking to students giving advice.

63 Abatement Notices in respect of Noise Nuisance were served on students at 16 properties, 49 on BU students and 14 on AUCB students. No Abatement Notices were served on students in halls of residence.