Concrete issue 129 17 10 2001

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... FREE INSIDE: event

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Issue 129 路 Wednesday, October 1 7, 2001

STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR

Students gather for London peace protest

FREE

SecuritY. staff claim students are being_Rut at risk Liz Hutch inson

STUDENT safety is at an all ti me low, according to University security guards. The members of staff, who wish to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs, claim that one porter was left to lock up the whole University last week due to a severe staffing shortage. They believe that students living in residence s are left unprotected at night as security bosses struggle to find enough men to patrol the University and its surroundings - despite recent reports of a flasher on campus.

Lucky "We only have men patrolling if we have the staff, but in the evening we are mostly locking up buildings. There is no security for the students whatsoever, we' ve been lucky so far because nothing has happened, but it could," said one of the porters. In addition to the lack of securi ty presence, the security guard ins1sts that CCTV

cam eras . which set the University back thousands of pounds , do not make campus safer. "In the evenings , you can 't see the CCTV, the trees are in the way for one thing, then you've got the reflection from lights, especially on the car parks . You can 't see anything ," he said . And they also insist that the staffing shortage is not helped by the increased amount of traffic coming onto campus each day fo rcing the porters to control the car parks and neglect their usual security duties. "I'm not a traffic warden , yet the other day I parked over five hundred cars. We are also inundated with vehi cle licenses which should really be handled by the administration staff." Not only is student security at its lowest, so is morale amongst th e security staff, prompting fea rs that some of the more expe rienced members of staff will walk out. "We are here for the security of th e stu dents really. When I come to work. I come for the students, its

my job to look after them," said another guard. Estates managers are aware that some of the CCTV cameras are not performing as they should and are currently investigating new sites for them .

Deny But University officials deny that there is a shortage of staff. "We have a full compl ement of security staff and any shortage would be due to staff sickness, in which case we would try to find cover if individual circumstances allow," said Director of the Estates and Building, Richard Goodall. And he also refuted claims that security guards are required in other areas leading them to compromise students' safety. "I have spoken to th e security managers and no one is able to verify the cla1m that a porter was left to lock up alone. As for car parking, we are not lookmg to recruit mo re staff because traffic management is part of the porters' duties," added Mr Goodall .

Students gather in London to protest against the war in Afghanistan. See page 3 for news on peace protests at UEA.

INSIDE: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SIR PATRICK MOORE PAGES 10路11


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Concrete issue 129 17 10 2001 by Concrete - the official student newspaper of UEA. - Issuu