For quite some time there have been complaints in the York press about the increase of the student population in Badger Hill. The residents of this estate are unhappy that landlords are buying properties and letting them to students, complaining that they bring nothing to the community. Although we are unlikely to fill their schools, I know that the shops are relied on by the students because I lived there last year and found the shops convenient to use, as did many other students I know who lived in the area.

It is no surprise that students want to live there because it is the nearest estate to the campus. I think the real problem is their bizarre hatred of students. My next door neighbours last year complained about the noise coming from my house, specifically talking and doors closing –natural noises to come from any house, and certainly no worse than our other next door neighbours, a young family. Indeed, in a letter they sent to my housemates this hatred was unequivocally laid out.

They were unhappy with us hanging a washing line at the back of our house, and told us, “We are not going to be downgraded by students not falling in with our standards and requests.” Our display of laundry was too “degrading” for them to bear seeing. It wasn’t that we were behaving unacceptably, clearly. It was because we were students. If all the residents of Badger Hill are this irrational, then I say populate the whole estate with students, and we’ll show them how a community really works.

Tim Yeomans, Third Year Maths Student

Related posts:

• Badger Hill residents lash out at students
• York tensions between ‘town and gown’
• Rising rent prices hit York
• Noisy students anger residents
• No good neighbours here