Clifton overwhelmed by 'too many' Bristol students, claim residents Published duration 14 October 2015

image caption Resident associations in Clifton claim students now make up a quarter of its population and are "totally altering" the area's character

There are "too many" students overwhelming the Clifton area of Bristol, according to local residents.

Two resident associations in the area claim students now make up a quarter of its population and there are "no plans" in place to manage the growth.

Peter Symes, from the Richmond Road Residents' Association, said it wants a "strategic plan to control the level".

But Caroline Court, from the University of Bristol, said recent "growth" had been in the city centre, not Clifton.

image caption Students' houses are a "blight" on the area, according to the residents associations

In a paper submitted to the Neighbourhood Partnership on Tuesday, the residents associations claim the "studentification" of Clifton had spawned an "aggressively expanding late-night economy" and was "totally altering" the area's character.

It said students' houses were a "blight" on the area and the influx had "displaced working people and families".

"Individual issues about noise, rubbish - we can sort those out. Our problem is when there are too many of one group," said Mr Symes.

"In about 2006 there was a strategic plan in place and that's fallen by the wayside - the university was predicting then that there would only be about 12,000 students a year but now there are nearly 20,000."

'Strategic plan'

The university owns nearly 4,000 "bed spaces" across the city and around 800 in the Clifton area.

Ms Court, head of student residential life at the university, said she "partly agrees" that there are too many students in too small an area of the city.

"We're a university city with two huge universities and this is a discussion that regularly comes up," she said.