Students cause havoc in Sligo

Unruly students have damaged cars, spat at staff and removed brick walls with their bare hands at a third level apartment complex, it emerged today.

The property management company Albanne has told parents of students in the Yeats Village at the Institute of Technology in Sligo that it had been its worst experience in 14 years.

“If we do not call a halt and try to stop this, we will not have a village left by year’s end,” said managing director Albert Dawson.

In a strongly-worded letter, he cited examples of the behaviour of some ’abusive and uncooperative’ students in the village:

:: Staff were spat at and told to ’f*** off and leave us alone’;

:: Property was pelted with eggs and beans on a regular basis ’not to mention other matter’;

:: Cars were driven up onto lawns and revvd up to spin the wheels, destroying the buildings with mud;

:: Windows were smashed, while a freshly built redbrick wall was removed overnight.

The Yeats Village was opened four years ago and houses 330 students in a mixture of houses and apartments. It is located on the Enniskillen Road beside IT Sligo.

The letter said a serious drink culture was to blame for many of the problems.

“Many nights, the village has been more active at four in the morning than four in the evening.”

Students in the complex were handed two separate warnings about anti-social behaviour before the letter was sent.

Speaking to the Press Association, Mr Dawson said only a small minority were causing problems.

“This is the Rolls Royce of student accommodation and 99% of my students are fantastic. It’s just there’s a half a dozen bad apples in every barrel,” he said.

He said students from other complexes were responsible from some of the problems, including the individual who took apart the block wall with his bare hands.

“He was caught and reprimanded by the college,” said Mr Dawson.

He added that anti-social behaviour was not confined to the Yeats student village.

“We are being upfront about this but it is not an isolated case. I have talked to colleagues in Limerick, Cork and Dublin and they all say exactly the same thing.”

There was one parent who told him that as the student was now over 18, they had no responsibility for him or her.

But Mr Dawson said the vast majority had supported his decision to highlight the problems.

“The phones have been hopping with parents who were delighted to get the information. We’re going to keep parents in the loop. We’ll tell them the good news and the bad,” he said.