A sustainable solution to the housing crisis currently facing both students and locals in Falmouth is being sought as the town council seeks to forge closer links with university bosses and the students' union.

Three representatives of students' union FXU addressed councillors on Monday night and it is now hoped that both Falmouth and Exeter universities will send someone along to a future meeting to discuss their expansion plans and how they plan to cater for all the extra students expected to descend on the town.

Councillors were informed that by 2019/20, the target for student numbers across both the Penryn and Falmouth campuses is 8,628 which is an increase of 2,296 on the confirmed numbers for 2015/16. Under the universities' planning consent for the Penryn campus there is a cap of 5,000 students and as that has almost been reached, they will soon be applying to raise that to 7,500.

An additional 1,050 student beds are planned for the Penryn campus and the universities are working with private sector developers, Cornwall Council and both Falmouth and Penryn town councils to identify suitable sites for new purpose built accommodation.

Of 13 sites identified, four have been recognised as being potentially suitable which are the Maritime TA car park in Bar Road, the bowling alley car park, a site at Ponsharden and Quarry car park.

There have been concerns raised that students' housing needs are being put before those of local people who are also desperate for affordable accommodation which led to the FXU unanimously agreeing at its recent AGM to oppose an expansion of student numbers until a sustainable solution to the housing crisis is found and agreed upon by all parties.

This led to students Tom Murray-Richards and Robbie Bartlett and FXU president for community and welfare, Alexa Webster, addressing a meeting of Falmouth Town Council on Monday, which was also attended by several Falmouth residents.

Tom and Robbie said: "Our motion is about sustainable growth, and not an outright call to stop growth entirely; and is called for by students as they are seeing real pressures in the housing sector currently and worry that this could worsen in the future.

"We should emphasise that we do not want this message to be hijacked by those that are unable to see the benefits of the universities to this town and Cornwall generally. Nevertheless, we are equally keen to play our part in highlighting the accommodation issue and encouraging shared solutions to it.

"We are asking the council to help develop a sustainable solution to finding a balanced mix of affordable accommodation both to students and to the ‘local’ population generally. So, we’re asking the council to work alongside the universities to protect the housing market and minimise rent increases by identifying suitable land to meet all our needs and not be driven by speculative investors or opportune planning applications.

"We ask that you work with the universities to find a way to manage the desire for growth in a way that does not negatively impact on Falmouth and our shared community. Similarly, we are asking the universities to demonstrate how they are working with all the local councils to address these issues."

Alexa added: "We need to get everyone around the table and this needs to be about more than just accommodation. We need to talk about rising numbers and the effect on GPs, dentists and local services such as foodbanks. I don't want this becoming them versus us and want it to be just us, us working together."

Councillor Candy Atherton said the council had been trying to work with the universities but it had been "very difficult over the last few years to get them to engage." She added: "I regret that the universities have not worked with us in the past as much as perhaps they should have done. I hope they see this as an opportunity to work with us going forward for the benefit of the town."