THE front page story about drunken student behaviour indicates that this problem continues to exist at unacceptable levels, as those of us living near students know only too well.
To compare such behaviour to the antics of monkeys would be to do the monkeys an injustice.
Of course there is worse, much more criminal, behaviour which many people in Britain have to endure in their neighbourhoods (and which should not be forgot
ten).
Yet the continued level of drunken students' noise and rowdiness during the night is not a trivial problem. In effect it amounts to the harassment of local people by the universities and students' unions to which the students belong.
The current provisions for trying to deal with it are totally inadequate. The streets in areas where students live should be adequately policed during the night, with sufficient patrols actually on the streets to deter rowdiness.
This could be done by a suitable combination of university staff and South Yorkshire Police.
However, the police themselves do not currently have the resources to devote much to such work and have to prioritise attending to more criminal behaviour. This raises this issue of funding.
The cost of such policing should be met by the universities and students' unions.
Such drunken behaviour is also the direct result of students drinking at late-night venues in the city centre. The cost of such policing should also be met from the profits of these establishments.
No licence should be granted unless such a business contributes to the costs of policing the effects of its merchandise.
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