A letting agency which placed signs on a city's streets branding the area StudentVille' has removed them after complaints from residents and the intervention of the Lord Mayor.
The agency, Matthew's of Chester, has apologised for what some residents have called offensive To Let signs which featured a photograph of a landmark mural in the Garden Quarter area of the city, and the wording We love StudentVille Chester'.
A local councillor, using the local newspaper The Chronicle to publicise his campaign, has described the posters as disrespectful and unnecessary.
The paper claims that the campaign, run by the agency's student letting team, also had a Facebook page which included a section entitled 10 random things to do before you graduate university with recommendations including to steal a traffic cone to put on your head and/or use a loudspeaker while being wheeled around in a shopping trolley and give a presentation while drunk.
This list was removed from the Facebook page after the newspaper contacted the agency.
A spokeswoman for the agency told the press: After looking at how other agents work with the student communities in university cities such as Cardiff and Bangor, we decided to follow their lead and create a Facebook page to engage with the students in a fun and informative way.
We put six boards up and received one complaint after a few days. We immediately acted upon the complaint and removed all boards as we did not wish to cause offence to anyone.
There is no getting away from the fact that there is a large and growing student population in Chester and we believe that our Facebook page can only have a positive effect on relations between local residents and students.
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