Advice for students on campus and local issues
- Car regulations for students
- Unauthorised room swaps
- House parties
- Anti-social behaviour
- Personal safety
- Be a good neighbour
- Student Handbook Homepage
Car regulations for students
Students who live on the main campus are not allowed to bring cars to College. It came to our attention last year that a number of students tried to bring cars to College, contrary to these regulations, and left them parked in neighbouring streets, particularly round the back of Egham. Additionally students who do not have permits to park on the main campus, (e.g. those living at Kingswood and in the local area), must not to drive down to College and leave cars in immediately adjoining streets. Because of the inconvenience being caused, Police take steps to identify owners of such carswhen appropriate and to report them. College is also working to identify such student car owners.
College is also committed to identifying unauthorised cars if they are brought onto campus or into the locality. Compared to most universities, Royal Holloway provides a very large amount of student car-parking space, but this is only available to students who live off the main campus at Kingswood or in the NA30 complex or who commute from a distance greater than 1.5 miles. If you live on campus, it is a condition of our rules that you do not keep a car at College or in the locality at all; if you live locally it is a condition that you do not act in a way that inconveniences our neighbours.
If you are breaking our regulations on cars, we strongly advise you to take immediate steps to rectify the situation and to avoid becoming involved in difficulties with the Police or with the College, since otherwise you will probably be fined and may even berequired to move off campus. Additional information can be found at rhul.ac.uk/advice/cars
Room swaps and sub-letting
Students may not privately exchange College rooms or let other people pay to take over their rooms (sub-letting is the technical term for doing this). Any room change that College does not know about creates significant safety problems and last year several examples came to light where students were attempting to let non-students take over College rooms. This is clearly potentially very dangerous.
Please do not become involved in this as penalties for those who are caught are high. College has a number of ways of tracking down illegitimate room changes which it is currently using. If you have made an exchange, we strongly suggest you change back immediately. If you wish to make a change, it must be arranged properly through the Accommodation Office.
Parties in local houses
The most common general complaint from neighbours in the area surrounding the College is noise nuisance caused by student parties. Poor relations with your neighbours can cause unnecessary unpleasantness and general bad feeling towards the College. Additionally there are a range of legal powers open to neighbours and landlords to use and in some areas they have been quick to invoke these. In serious cases College will also take action against students to preserve good relationships locally. They are few things more miserable than seeing students in serious trouble over something that was originally meant to be fun, so do take precautions against complaints in advance.
There is not a fixed definition of when noise is or is not reasonable in the community in the same way as there is in Halls. Generally any noise that can be heard outside the premises can be defined as a nuisance. Therefore we suggest that if you are arranging a party you involve your neighbours in advance. Agree a reasonable time to bring the party to an end. You may even consider inviting neighbours along to join you. Friday and Saturday nights are likely to be more acceptable nights, as the majority of people don't have to get up early for work or the school run. When outside, be aware that sound carries much further out of doors. It is a good idea to keep windows and external doors closed as much as possible to keep the noise inside. Encourage guests to arrive and leave quietly and if using cars to drive and park them responsibly. Be careful how widely you circulate invitations and who you invite as you will be held responsible for the behaviour of gatecrashers and excluded guests who cause a disturbance in the street. If things go seriously wrong, close the party down, if necessary involving the Police yourself. Unless you have particularly relaxed neighbours, don't expect to be able to hold repeated parties. Spread the load by getting friends to use their houses instead.
The College does its best to try and resolve any disputes by consensus. If neighbours are troubled, we ask them where possible to raise the issue with you first and to contact the College only if a resolution cannot be reached. The vast majority of cases are that are referred to us are resolved without disciplinary sanctions, but if we receive formal substantiated complaints, especially when backed with evidence from the Police or Environmental Health Department, the College will look to impose a penalty on students and these penalties can be severe.
Anti-social behaviour in the local area
College occasionally receives repoortds of low-level anti-social behaviour. This includes general noise when leaving campus late at night; individuals trying to climb the fences on the College's Egham boundary after the back gate closes in the evening, with resultant noise and damage; and foolish antics such as upturning bins, interfering with car windscreen wipers and knocking at house doors. Such behaviour is fortunately isolated and completely out of character with the normal behaviour of our students locally. Poor relations with our neighbours obviously cause unnecessary unpleasantness and general bad feeling towards the College. Some of these actions are plainly illegal; all of them are inconsiderate. College works with the Police and the local authority and using CCTV to identify perpetrators. College will take firm action if any students are found to have been involved in such incidents.
If you have any questions about any of this, please contact Student Support Services on 01784 443394 or mail Community@rhul.ac.uk or see rhul.ac.uk/for-students/goodneighbour.html