Residents angry at plans to raise student numbers at the Penryn Campus gathered on The Moor in Falmouth yesterday afternoon to make their feelings known.

Chanting Keep the Cap members of the protest group Save Our Falmouth held a Stand in Solidarity demonstration, asking the universities to keep their current 5,000-student cap until they provide necessary housing and transport, and a Falmouth Neighbourhood Plan and Article 4 directive are in place.

In a letter to the Packet this week, the campaigners have decried plans for purpose built student accommodation at the sites of the Rosslyn Hotel and Ocean Bowl in Falmouth, as well as the use of private rented properties and houses of multiple occupancy, and "a rash" of "behind the scenes" planning applications aimed at students.

The letter states: "There is a housing shortage and with that comes rental costs and house price hikes. The major factor for the housing crisis is the university’s failure in the last decade to build enough accommodation for the ever-increasing number of students it has invited here to study.

"The university has only built enough for about a third of students, the remainder struggle to find accommodation in the local market.

"Students face discrimination, paying more to landlords than locals do to live in a family home.

"Relying on the market to house students the university has caused high levels of division, housing insecurity, and rent and house price inflation. It has been the cause of thousands of locals priced out of the area. It has pushed up rents in a low-waged economy making housing unaffordable and for students increasing their £10,000’s debt even more."

It calls plans for 280 beds at the Ocean Bowl site - which include a nine-storey tower - "crammed" and "a profitable dreamscape for the owners," and throws doubt on plans to discourage cars by forcing students to park at least two miles from the site.

And it states that the Rosslyn Hotel plans for 128 students are reminiscent of "sardines", with residents forced to eat "ready-meal solo dinners... as there is no dining area."

To view and comment on planning applications for the Rosslyn Hotel visit the Cornwall Council planning page and search for PA16/03586, or to view the proposal to raise numbers at Penryn Campus search for PA16/03323.