RESIDENTS who claim their lives are blighted by late night noise and disturbances created by St John's College students are to elect two people to "fight our corner".

People living in the St John Street area of York, near to the college, claim the students create "havoc" during term time. As well as making noise, they claim the students urinate and vomit in the street, and dump take-away debris.

They were strongly opposed to proposed extensions to the student's union bar, passed by City of York Council last month. They say their concerns still stand, and they will make them known when they elect two residents to the York St John's College Community Liaison Committee.

An open meeting of all residents in the area is planned for next month or early October, when the election will take place. A residents' group representing people living in the St John Street, or Guildhall North area, will also be set up.

St John Street resident Alec Richard said: "These two committee places are the first time we have had a direct way of expressing our concerns directly to the college, so this is an important development for us. It makes sense for us to establish a residents' group that can represent us on other local issues as well as the student noise."

Sarah Davey, who also lives in St John Street, with her husband, Michael, said: "We are not going to go away, we are going to keep fighting these problems, they are affecting our quality of life quite badly."

Details of the meeting date will be published in a future edition of local newsletter, Groves Chat.

Nathalie Thomas, Students' Union vice-president, said: "The students' union exists to support all of the students here at York St John College and we pride ourselves on balancing the needs of our students with those of the local residents. Our students contribute a significant amount of their time to positive causes within the local community. We welcome contributions from local residents through the college's Community Liaison Committee and it is our intention to work with local residents rather than against them."

Ms Thomas added that £5,000 was to be spent on a new campaign aimed at educating students on the effects of their behaviour in the community.

Updated: 08:33 Thursday, August 29, 2002