Residents in Headington are fighting a bid by Oxford Brookes to obtain an alcohol and entertainment licence for their Gipsy Lane campus.
The proposal, which has already been withdrawn once following an objection from a local city councillor, would permit the sale of alcohol every day until 11pm.
The University is also seeking permission to extend licensed activities, which include live music performances, until 2am on twelve occasions per year, and twice for the entire night.
Many residents are deeply opposed to the application, which they claim will disrupt life for people living near the campus. Margaret Conway, of Headington Hill, said, “It will be a party time district right beside major residential areas.”
There is further anger over the way in which Oxford Brookes has made the application. Joe McManners, the councillor for Churchill Ward who persuaded the university to resubmit the plans, said, “I was concerned that people had not been properly consulted.”
Conway’s husband, Ken Lovesy, agreed with the councillor, saying that the University was “trying to slip a blanket proposal under the radar” and that locals faced “a nightmare world of noise pollution and rowdy behaviour”.
Oxford Brookes, which has three main campuses, initially requested permission for activities to go on until 11.30pm every day, as well as the fourteen extended evenings. In a poll for the Oxford Mail, 69% of people objected to those hours.
The University has said that there are no plans to open a student bar on the site, or to use the licence for the purposes of raising income. In a letter to residents dated 30th September 2011, Amanda Ashworth-Plant, Oxford Brookes’ Head of Campus Operations, sought to reassure locals that “the site will remain a place of teaching and study without student accommodation”.
She did admit, however, that “there may be occasional events at which the University would like to be able to charge for the supply of drinks”, including “receptions, ceremonies and end of term events”.
Brookes students have mixed feelings about the dispute. James Buckland, a first year Film Studies student, pointed out that drinks events on university sites were often “far safer than going into town”. But he accepted that “loud, drunken messy teenagers” could be a nuisance for neighbours.
Another student at the university took a harsher approach, telling Cherwell, “the University is entitled to use its premises in any way it sees fit”. He pointed out that local people often made use of facilities provided by the university, and dismissed criticism of the plans as an “outcry from a vocal minority”.
Edward Reed, a spokesman for Brookes, defended the application as little more than an attempt to reduce paperwork. In a statement to Cherwell, he said, “Oxford Brookes is not changing the nature of the licensable activities taking place on its campuses. The premises licences, one for each site, are to cover events such as graduations, student plays and concerts including those when there are no alcohol sales taking place.”
Asked about whether the local community could benefit from events taking place on the campus, Reed gave the example of the ‘Open Lectures Series’, which recently featured Niall McNevin, a former Brookes student, now leading the legacy element of the Olympic Park for London 2012. The lectures are all open to the public, with “wine and nibbles” laid on.
Oxford Brookes students have a history of tension with local residents, especially concerning behaviour late at night. In November 2008, members of the Oxford Brookes Rugby Club were banned from playing for the team after an alcohol-related disturbance at the Hobgoblin pub, on Cowley Road. In April last year the university launched a campaign to educate students about the health risks of excessive alcohol consumption.
However, Matthew Tallant, a first year student at Brookes, denied that a particularly bad drinking culture existed at the university, saying it was “fairly usual, with the majority simply falling into the social drinking category”. In his experience, he said, “when drinking, the mood is always friendly and not forced upon people”.
