IS ANYBODY else in Brighton awaiting the restoration of "normal" with both happy anticipation and a certain clenched anxiety?

Like everyone I am looking forward to eating out and being able to have proper face-to-face catch-ups over my own dining table.

However, living as I do in an area well populated with student HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and knowing what it can be like when just one house decides to have a party I can already feel the angst rising.

I have lived in Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, for over 20 years and watched it fill up with large HMOs. We now have 14 between the viaduct and the Circus.

The usual house-party scenario is the dull roar of a small festival. We all enjoy a good drink with our mates, the difference is the rest of us do not feel the need to party on the pavement, p*** on neighbour’s walls, have an open-door policy until dawn and the windows wide to make sure the whole street can enjoy our bass beat.

I write this not to complain but as a call to the universities to prime their students that all bets are most definitely not off!

We have all felt the social deprivation and emotional fatigue of isolation. The one huge advantage of lockdown has been the peace and quiet.

Can the residents of our city have any hope of heading into the new normal with a sense of joy rather than the need to buy Harris fencing for their front gardens?

Cath Prenton

Beaconsfield Road

Brighton