Council slaps Asbo on Leeds freshers’ party

The nine housemates from Leeds University hired speakers and strobe lighting for the rowdy bash at their digs on Brudenell Avenue in the Hyde Park area of the city.

Their music and antics got so out of hand council officers showed up three times trying to get them to turn it down - but the undergrads were ‘too drunk to care’.

They partied on until the early hours and the next day a neighbour made an official complaint to Leeds City Council.

Following a series of letters two weeks later all nine tenants of the home were given Anti-Social Behaviour Orders.

If they have another loud party and break the terms of the writ they could be fined £5,000.

One of the organisers, second year history student Ellie Canham told the student website The Tab that: “Things did get a little bit out of hand. The council turned up at quarter to twelve, telling us to turn the music down. To be honest, we were really drunk and didn’t care.

“Throughout the night, they apparently turned up three times, but they spoke to different members of the house each time. So between us we didn’t know until the next day that they’d turned up that much.”

The party was held to mark Freshers’ Week, with the Hyde Park area of Leeds having been popular with students as a place to live for decades.

But the next morning they discovered a written warning from the council which was given to someone outside the house and thrown on the floor.

Ellie said: “They said that was our first warning and next time there was an incident we’d get a written one.

“So we thought that was the end of it.

“A couple of days letter we received another letter which said this was the written warning.

“Two weeks later, we all got ASBOs in the post.”

As well as the threat of hefty fines, the housemates have also all been blacklisted by Leeds estate agents - much to the dismay of the group.

Ellie added: “I went to house parties during Freshers’ Week which were just as loud as that and nobody was reported then.”

It is understood that the students involved have not been involved in any more trouble and that none of them have, as yet, told their parents of the ASBO.

ASBOs were a controversial flagship law and order policy from the days of Tony Blair and were designed to act as a deterrent to loutish behaviour.