HOW times have changed... Bevendean used to be a lovely place to live, surrounded by rolling hills in a valley, beautiful settings and a quiet area outside of town.

However since the early 2000s it has been ruined by students. Like many other areas of Brighton the mass influx of students has deeply affected it. They are everywhere. We have been badly let down by the council and their failure to control it. Me and my family are born and bred in Bevendean.

We have student houses each side of ours, every year we have had nothing but trouble. Parties, screaming like children all hours of the day, music banging out all hours, banging doors at all times, all their cars parked everywhere – the list just goes on.

I had to move bedrooms to the outside wall of the house to get away from the noise.

It’s really not fair. Why should we continuously spend our time, effort and money to keep phoning the council, environmental health and the universities to try and get this sorted.

And then when you do, it all starts again when the new students move in at the start of their year.

The next thing now happening is that the old Willow Doctors Surgery site has been given planning permission to be turned into a multi-storey student flats. I saw all the objections from residents for this and they still give it planning permission. It’s madness, God help the poor residents living there. Now the council has put plans in place to try and limit this. Limit the number of HMOs in any given area but it is too little too late.

They have only done this because the Bevendean local area team has gone to them. The council would have done nothing off their own backs.

Limiting the amount of HMOs in a street will not get rid of the two either side of our house. There needs to be a total ban on student HMOs.

Universities should only be allowed as many students as they can accommodate for in their own on-site accommodation. I don’t see anything changing. I don’t see any hope for the future. I fear Bevendean as we knew it has been lost for ever and we will never get it back.

James Andrews, Lower Bevendean Avenue, Brighton