THERE has just been the annual race in Badger Hill, Osbaldwick, Tang Hall, Fulford and areas bordering the university between the first snowdrops heralding spring and the “property to let” signs.

City of York Council once again is strapped for cash, and the council tax for the indigenous population is to rise. However, if all the property-to-let signs paid something towards the services they use, every household then would pay less annually.

Currently, houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs), which are nearly all student houses, do not pay council tax at all. The occupancy of student HMOs is, on average, double that of a normal household. These student HMOs therefore make higher demands on local services – but make no monetary contribution.

The revenue lost to local authorities is theoretically reimbursed by national government. However, this reimbursement is taken from general taxation – which in turn is paid by those who have already paid council tax, which means a double whammy for the residents of a town or city which has a student population.

Meanwhile, the estate has increasing litter, and churned-up grass verges due to cars being parked on them, and then traffic dodging among the chicanes from the cars on the road that can’t find room on the grass verges.

Mostly the students on our estate are pleasant and polite, with a few rowdy exceptions, but the general feeling is that no one cares about the residents, whose environment is being changed by the greed of the landlords and the insidious encroachment of the university.

Before long the number of family houses on the estate will be outnumbered by the properties to let, and I bet the senior management team at the university would not be keen to have their property’s valuation being fixed by the going rate for the sale of another potential HMO.

Paul Hobman, Eastfield Crescent, Badger Hill, York.