Cardiff Lockdown: Students returning to Cathays raise concerns for local residents
Photo by Cody Doherty on Unsplash
“It's like living in in somebody else's holiday camp and it's not one you’d like to visit.”
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Anthony Dolan is one of many Cathays residents voicing frustrations on social networking app Nextdoor about students creating excessive noise and breaking covid guidelines.
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The 45-year-old, from Cardiff, is now moving house after the city’s local lockdown worsened his living conditions with student parties becoming more frequent as a result.
According to residents, students are breaking lockdown rules to have parties because they can’t go out.
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At the end of September, Cardiff entered a local lockdown, alongside Swansea and Llanelli, in an attempt to curb rising coronavirus cases.
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Eight authorities are already under local lockdown in Wales.
Mr. Dolan moved to Cathays 22 years ago after finishing studying at Cardiff University.
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Like any community, there’s always the occasional issue but in the last few years, he noticed a change with students in the area. He said: “It's like we have to live by their rules, giving them those kind of concessions and there's been a sense of entitlement that’s crept in.”
Students from the three primary universities in the city have historically resided in the streets around Crwys Road in Cathays and Albany Road in Roath.
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In previous years, the number of houses of multiple occupancy (HMO) has been limited in the areas of Cathays by Cardiff Council to combat issues like anti-social behaviour, and noise associated with students.
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The highest number of pupils and students in Wales is located within the Cardiff and Vale area.
The new academic year has meant parties are happening in student accommodation, with Dolan living between two HMOs and experiencing the full extent of their behaviour.
He said: “I’m squeezed in, feeling adrift in your own neighbourhood with a sense of feeling too old for the place.”
“You ask people to check their behaviour and they look at you a bit baffled at times, saying the point that “this is what we're meant to do. This is how we behave this is a student area with students in student houses. What do you expect?”, he said.
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“That's been quite a frustrating thing to have to deal with and that's been something I've dealt with for a number of years now.
"You wonder what's going to happen every year. You got a bunch of people coming in every year and there's a kind of anticipation and stress about the whole thing.”
Dolan doesn't think Cathays can be classed as anything but a business venture for a yearly cycle of students passing by instead of a stable community.
Several Cathays residents took to Nextdoor to relay experiences had living in the student area.
Cathays residents have complained about student housing diminishing communal quality over the last few years, with a new surge of concern stemming from the lockdown.
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“It's become less community minded. It’s becoming quite a transient neighbourhood. It just seems like it's all geared towards that mentality of anybody left here as a permanent resident is just is a bystander,” he added.
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“It's just a sense of continuous sad frustration and needing to get out. This is not where I should be anymore.”
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In an effort to control mass gatherings and mixing households, South Wales Police has been granted new powers to directly enter homes under new Health Protection Regulations (Coronavirus Restrictions).
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This comes with the police and volunteers beginning their annual door-to-door Crime Prevention and Personal Safety campaign in order to “keep the student population safe” by “giving direct advice to students in the local community."
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Students have raised the issue on social media of recent police presence in Cathays for invading privacy and unfairly targeting younger people.
Keswani is concerned for those shielding or at high risk dealing with police door knocking.
Students shared images of police presences on community pages on Facebook.
Naimish Keswani, a data journalism student at Cardiff University, understands the collective criticism of students skewing guidelines but says “it isn’t fair to categorise all the students together.”
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“Me and my housemates are one of the prime examples of a percentage of students who don’t want noise. We also want quiet."
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He added: “I don't think it's fair to merge all of us together and put students in one category. If there's a lot of noise, all of us get annoyed by that in the same way as anyone else would, student or not.”
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Mr. Keswani experienced police presence at his house where officers questioned him about the number of occupying residents, if they’re aware of the rules and then explain the coronavirus guidelines to act as a reminder of the local limitations on all people.
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“I was a little startled by a policeman on the doorstep but then they clarified what’s going on and they’re just here for routine check-ups,” he said.
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“I'm a neurotypical, I don't have any mental health issues but for students who may have that, and who may have bullies on the doorstep, it might not be the best experience, especially when you don't want to spread Covid so the police going door to door doesn't help.
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“I feel like it was well-intentioned, but it could have been implemented in a better way.”
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Cathays Councillor Norma Mackie said that while both sides of the argument are understandable, the only way for this to improve is through neighbourly empathy: “Obviously, Covid is a catalyst for these fears but what we'd like for the future is for the students and residents to get together and recognise that they're all part of our community, that they can benefit from each other and learn to live with each other in harmony.
“We try and keep everybody safe in dealing with both communal and health issues. We have systems to do that such as the Covid prevention and response plan, and we are trying our best to protect and make everyone informed on what they should do.”
The Prevention and Response Plan​ was released in early September and outlines how Cardiff and the Vale will continue to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Twenty-one separate measures are being monitored by the Cardiff and Vale Test, Trace, Protect service in a bid to identify early warning signs of a spike in cases.
If concerning trends or patterns are identified, a panel of experts review the data and recommend measures that may help slow the spread.
Educational settings, office workplaces, healthcare settings, non-food factories, coastal areas, and the night-time economy have all be marked for close surveillance by the Cardiff and Vale Test, Trace, Protect service.
Following First Minister Mark Drakeford’s announcement about the localised lockdown, new rules have been implemented in the areas.
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The rules are:
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You cannot enter or leave your local area without a reasonable excuse.
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You can no longer form an extended household unless you live alone, are a single parent or have a good reason to do so, such as providing care for a vulnerable person.
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You may only meet indoors with your household.
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Local restrictions will be reviewed two weeks after they’re first put in place, then every seven days.
Additional new rules that came into force with the announcement are that all pubs, restaurants, and cafes having a curfew of 10 PM and you must wear face-covering at all times in a shop.
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