I was very glad to hear that you sympathise with the residents of Woodhouse Moor and Headingley, but before you voice your views you should get to know some of the locals and get some cold hard facts.

You state that students bring in money to the area, "housing, pubs, takeaways etc." Most of the residents (numbers now sadly declining steadily over the years) care and respect the area and local community. More and more wonderful family houses are sadly becoming student flats/houses, five or seven students sharing a house (depending on how many the landlords can squeeze in) and all with cars that need to be parked, meaning that I, as a resident, on many occasions have to park streets away from my home.

And we see students coming and going, and many of them not really caring about the area and community, after all in a few years they will be off back home to their well respected and cared for areas.

Yes, the takeaways do thrive, but you don't have to live with the discarded takeaway boxes and rubbish that greets most people on a regular basis. And yes, some of the pubs and clubs do thrive because of the students, but it is the residents who have to listen to the drunken antics of these students till the early hours, even though we have to get up for work the next day.

You also tried to make some point about people paying £5 entrance fee to "the events that people are so against". These so-called events, Ms Goodwill, are taking place in our parks and public spaces. Why, as a resident, should I be asked to pay a fee to take my children on to a public park, where a bunch of students are having a water fight or a pillow fight, or just trashing a local beauty spot with their barbecues and litter? Isn't it enough that the council supply skips and bottle banks that clearly are not used by the students ('Moor under threat from litter and fires', YEP, May 12)?

I have to live here and work here and come into contact with students and locals all the time, what I don't see is all students being responsible for the place and community that they live in, whilst residents and locals are fighting a constant battle to have a nice place to live and work.

Is it too much to ask that people be responsible wherever they go for their litter, and respect their surroundings? "Live and let live?" I live here and know what is going on, Ms Goodwill, unlike you!

Stanley Lewis, Kensington Terrace, Leeds 6


Further to Ms Goodwill's letter about the problems on Woodhouse Moor, and mass gatherings organised through the internet.

It is not a question of Leeds being "a university city". Leeds should be a city in which all residents and visitors feel welcome and at home.

At the moment, a thoughtless, selfish minority are making Woodhouse Moor a no-go area for the majority of residents – student and non-student alike.

Everybody should be able to enjoy our public parks and places like Mandela Gardens without them being trashed. Students are just as sick of this as everybody else.

And it isn't a question of either having universities or not having them. Of course we want world-class universities. But the people who are fortunate enough to attend them should respect Leeds – as most students do; and the universities should take responsibility when problems arise, including financial responsibility.

Ian Harker, Kensington Terrace, Hyde Park


Two letters in Tuesday's Evening Post caught my eye. One mentioning the police 'Force' and the other asking why the police do not 'go in heavy' on the troublemakers wrecking Woodhouse Moor.

My thoughts on the first are that Mrs Allan was quite correct when she stated there is no such thing as a police force anymore. That has long been taken away by successive governments, leaving the police as nothing more than the uniformed wing of the social services. Instead of upholding the law and keeping the queen's peace, the police service finds itself predominantly promoting multiculturalism and homosexual rights.

The question of why the police did not 'go in heavy' on Woodhouse Moor can be answered by looking at this Labour Government's Human Rights Act 1998. An Act of Parliament much loved by murderers, terrorists and rest of the criminal classes but of little relevance to you and me. It was because of this act that police officers had to stand and take the stones and bottles thrown at them at Elland Road this season, because to make a baton charge and clear the hostile crowd would have impinged on the crowd's 'human rights'.

So, if the police cannot go in heavy on a missile-throwing mob, there is no chance of them being allowed to sort out a group of barbecue-burning students.

T Tempest, by email