Families living on a street in north Leeds say they are constantly being kept awake by "relentless" street parties during lockdown.
Several residents in Moorland Avenue, Hyde Park, have expressed concerns after the warm weather in recent months has seen students pack into houses - despite strict social distancing rules - and blast music from loudspeakers for up to 16 hours at a time.
Several people say they are at the end of their tether with the behaviour, which has also seen students urinating on walls outside family homes in the middle of the afternoon and groups of young men deliberately smashing bottles on the pavement.
"I came home one day and there were boys just weeing along a wall right outside my house in the middle of the afternoon," said Alison McNeill, who has lived on the street for 20 years.
'They think it's funny but a child ended up having to go into hospital'
"Mums are having to usher their kids past all this in the middle of the day.
"I've seen groups of students throwing bottles at the wall and watching them smash.
"They think it's funny but one of my neighbour's friends was walking home with her kids on the street. The child tripped up and landed on broken glass. He ended up having to go into hospital."
Alison believes a number of students have started coming back to the area in the past month or so to move out of the shared houses that line the street. With the return of the students came the "relentless" street parties.
"Since the start of June, we've had nothing but street parties from the student houses on this road," said Alison.
"They're in the gardens and out on the streets. We've got families with young kids and doctors who live on this street."
Another woman who lives in Moorland Avenue, but did not want to be named, said: "If the weather's good, they have been sitting out in the gardens partying and drinking.
"There was one last Thursday that went on for about 16 hours. It started at about 6pm in the evening and went on all the way through to 10am in the morning.
"The most difficult part is the sound system that somebody has. It must be outside, because it's so loud - even from 10 houses away. That's the most disturbing thing to me. The music is the worst bit."
Following the recent party on Thursday, June 25, police officers were called to the scene.
West Yorkshire Police have since issued a joint statement with the council's noise nuisance team which said: "We visited a number of addresses in the Hyde Park area on Friday which had been subject to complaints.
"The council and police are now actively monitoring the addresses and there was an increased police presence over the weekend, which will continue."
The statement also says the police and council will "seize equipment" if necessary and stated: "Coronavirus remains a deadly disease. While house parties and antisocial behaviour causes disruption at any time, it clearly creates an additional unnecessary risk to public health amid the pandemic."
It's not just broken bottles and loud music that residents have to deal with though.
Alison and her neighbours regularly take it upon themselves to clear up the piles of empty laughing gas canisters that are left dumped outside family homes after the unrelenting parties. She says that they often fill several plastic bags with the metal tubes in a single morning.
"We used to have what I call human beings living round here," said Alison.
"It's a very small minority of students that come across now that are human and compassionate about sharing the area with us.
"One of the dads who came to pick up their boy - who's a student here - told me I live in the wrong area. He said it's a party area but it's not. It's a residential area where students also live."
The council and police were handed new powers at the start of this month to clamp down on the student street parties, but also the drug use and street drinking which have taken over the area.
The new ruling to tackle antisocial behaviour is known as a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) and is the 16th such order currently in effect across Leeds. It will cover Headingley and Hyde Park, as well as parts of Burley and Little London.
The new PSPO prohibits the following behaviour:
- street parties which have "a detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality and is of a persistent or continuing nature"
- gathering in groups of two or more to engage in anti-social behaviour likely to cause alarm, harassment or distress
- consuming alcohol or being in possession of an open container of alcohol in a public space
- ingesting, inhaling, injecting or smoking intoxicating substances
Alison said: "I'm hoping the orders will calm things down, but you look at the graffiti and flytipping. It looks like a rough area and a not-cared-for area.
"The University of Leeds have said that most of the problem houses are people with more than six people. Hopefully this new order will give the council more powers to stop it.
"This isn't just a recent issue - although it has got worse in the past few years. I've been asking for the graffiti to be removed for the last 10 years."
Anyone caught veering outside the new rules could be hit with a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £100, but Alison says the local residents group are willing to engage with the students and encourage them to make it a nicer place for everyone to live.
She said: "There is a good community around here, but there seems to be no respect for local people [from students]. There's no recognition that other people do live here.
"It would be great if the students got involved to make the place better. I'd love to get together with the young people and involve them in turning this place around."
