The University of Nottingham is working with Nottinghamshire Police to step up its support for local residents and tackle incidents of anti-social behaviour in Lenton and Radford.
Between Friday 2 July and Sunday 9 July, the University will be funding up to 100 hours of police overtime to ensure a dedicated officer presence in the area to discourage noise nuisance and deal swiftly with any potential issues.
The move will help police to respond to any disturbances during this period, but it could also be extended further if necessary, for example, after 19 July when it is anticipated that the Government will lift all restrictions on social distancing.
Supporting local communities
It comes as part of a wider package of financial support that the University provides to the Nottingham City Council Community Protection services: it commits £30,000 each year to support out of hours operations and in 2020/21, it invested an additional £20,000 into the service to increase the number and regularity of patrols In Lenton and Radford to help support local communities while Covid-19 regulations are in force and during UK lockdowns.
Registrar at the University of Nottingham, Dr Paul Greatrix, said: "We know that this has not been the academic year that many of our students were expecting and we have been proud of how the majority have worked hard to make a positive contribution during their time in Nottingham, with many working on the frontline in the NHS, at vaccination centres and volunteering to help the communities in which they live.
"However, we have been deeply disappointed by the behaviour of a small number of our students whose actions have caused stress and disturbance for the residents of Lenton and Radford, some of whom are also students themselves.
"We hope this extra funding for the police will help to provide extra reassurance for residents that we take these issues extremely seriously. In addition to supporting a greater police presence, we have been in constant contact with our students to remind them of the need to be considerate neighbours and that, in addition to any police or court action, we will take disciplinary action against those who breach our Student Code of Conduct, where fines, suspension and exclusion are potential outcomes.
The University will continue to work closely with police, local authorities and residents' associations to ensure our students protect and respect the communities of which they are a part.
Robust action
Neighbourhood Inspector Amy English, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Local officers have been working extremely hard in the Lenton and Radford communities to tackle the disruption and disturbances from a number of parties that have been impacting on the lives of local families.
"We have responded robustly and proactively on each occasion, including introducing a dispersal order giving us extra powers to take action.
"We welcome this short-term funding which will allow us to deploy additional officers over a ten-day period.
"In the longer term we will continue to work with local partner agencies to ensure issues like this are prevented from happening in the first place, and also work jointly to tackle issues as they arise to ensure residents don't have to suffer sleepless nights."
Listening to concerns
The University has been listening to the concerns of local residents about the impact that the behaviour of students has on their local communities. In addition to its partnership work with the police, the University is also currently undertaking a series of waste and recycling action days in Radford, Lenton and Dunkirk.
Staff and student ambassadors are joining forces with Nottingham City Council waste colleagues and Community Protection to support students moving out of properties for the summer in disposing of their waste responsibly. The ambassadors will be out on the streets litter picking, bagging waste and pulling out wheelie bins ready for collection.
This supports the existing successful Pack for Good British Heart Foundation campaign, supported by the University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham City Council, where students leaving their accommodation in the community are encouraged to donate their unwanted items to be sold in BHF's charity shops.
Despite the impact of Covid restrictions, a remarkable 7,733 donation bags were collected in 2020, raising more than £108,262 in funds for BHF research. This also meant that a significant amount of waste, 61.86 tonnes (the equivalent of 10.3 elephants), has been diverted away from landfill. This equates to 629,590 kgs of co2 greenhouse gas emissions being avoided.
This means that the total amount generated by this campaign in Nottingham since its launch in 2012 has now exceeded £1 million pounds.
