Police vandalise streets in attempt to shut students up

As unbelievable as it may seem there is more to Exeter than just the university life.

A new campaign by Cornwall and Devon Police and Exeter City Council involves defacing pavements with messages designed to remind students that many of Exeter’s streets are also home to local residents.

This handful of stencils can be found scattered around the highly student populated areas such as Vic Street and Queens Crescent, reading “you are now in an alcohol control zone” and “neighbours sleeping, thank you”.

However it seems that these efforts have been futile.

Fourth-year linguist Olivia Ponton hadn’t even seen the messages.

She said: “I haven’t actually seen them so they’re really not that effective.”

Third-year Politics student Sophie Davidson found them to be lacking in enforcement.

She said: “I actually walked over the ‘you are now in an alcohol control zone’ towards Arena last night with a drink in hand.

“I don’t really get what it means. They’re quite silly.”

The University has also been working alongside the council and the police on this project with the Students’ Guild providing a Welcome Team of 180 trained students.

These students are there to help guide and support new students around the university and city over the Freshers’ period.

University of Exeter Neighbourhood Beat Manager PC Ian Lugg has been working with the Welcome Team for the last 3 years.

“The Welcome Team plays a vital role in prioritising student safety and managing the noise levels of students returning to halls from the city centre that can affect local residents” he said.

The Welcome Team are only in effect for ten days of Freshers’ and are disbanded after this time.

Like the team, the messages, which use chalk, are not permanent and are designed to wear off over time, with the aim being that the messages remain with students long after the words have physically gone.

However one must question the thought process behind appealing through words to students who are too blind-drunk to read them.