Kingston residents blame students for public sex, petty theft and vandalism (From Surrey Comet)

Mill Street residents blame Kingston Uni students for public sex, petty theft and vandalism

11:40am Monday 10th November 2008 in Search By Kerry Grove

University bosses will have to face angry residents this month after an emergency meeting was called about the new intake of students causing chaos in a quiet Kingston street.

Mill Street Residents’ Association (MSRA) has demanded the emergency meeting, after being plagued by late-night drunken bad behaviour, sex in public, petty thefts and vandalism.

It is the first time in several years they have had to take this action against students at Middle Mill halls of residence, at the end of Mill Street. The meeting has been pencilled in for November 17.

Last Monday, a popular student night at many Kingston bars and clubs, litter was strewn all over the road, neighbours were kept awake with screaming and shouting, and plants were pulled out of window boxes.

Neighbours are now demanding more CCTV to help the university identify the culprits and take action.

Annita Barbieri from MSRA said: “We have had a lot of problems this year. If we report something at a particular time they should be able to see who it is.”

Resident Carol Bilney, who has suffered vandalism in her garden, added: “It is just destruction for destruction’s sake. They are a particularly bad intake this year. Sometimes there are up to 80 of them in a group.”

Another resident Sue Thomas, 53, said she has been up at 2am sweeping up broken bottles in the street and has been forced to chain plant pots to her doorstep after she caught someone trying to steal one.

Another neighbour caught two young people having sex against her car on the driveway, just inches from her front door.

A spokeswoman from Kingston University said not all bad behaviour can be attributed to its students but when they were found to be involved “strong action would be taken”.

She added: “Residents in university halls sign a contract and can be asked to leave if their behaviour is proved to have caused disturbance to local residents.”

She said the campus was well served by CCTV and urged residents to approach Kingston Council if they felt it was needed in their street.

Last month, Student Union president Olrick Coker admitted this year’s students were “more mischievous” than in previous years, after fire crews received a record number of hoax calls.

Break glass fire alarms at Seething Wells and Clay Hill were set off 10 times in one night on October 15.