The "nightmare" of living next door to cannabis-smoking, up-all-hours partying students has driven one Penryn family so far that they want to leave the town completely.

Michelle Seabourne has claimed she and her husband Robert, along with sons Oliver, 9, and Louie, 6, have had to cope with loud noise, the smell of cannabis, and have even had to move their bed due to the amount of noise coming from next door to their house on Trekeen Road.

The couple have lived at the address for seven years, but it was only just under two years ago when the first students moved in, and it was only with the arrival of new tenants in in October when the situation turned sour, and now they want to leave.

Michelle has claimed she feels intimidated by the group, two girls and three boys, and has called the police several times to complain about parties that have gone into the early hours of the morning, and about her belief that they are taking drugs.

She said: "They have parties from 8pm until 11.30pm, they go out and come back at 3am and go through until 8am.

"Our house constantly smells of weed because they are always smoking it out the front.

"People can do what they want as long as it doesn't impact on our life. They're quite threatening."

She said she had told the previous occupants that she didn't mind if they had the occasional party as long as they were given a warning. The new occupants send letters ahead of their parties, but Michelle said: "I say 'I'd rather you didn't', they are twice a week and they are all night."

She even said they get groups of people coming down from out of town for parties, and recently three car loads turned up, with "about 20 people" staying over. She also said "vile" language coming from the house and garden was clearly audible to her two young sons.

The couple have moved their sons to a quieter bedroom on the side of the house away from the students, and have moved their own bed three times to try and get further from the source of the noise.

But Michelle said it is also smaller things, like clearing up after they have left uncovered bin bags out to get ripped open, or parking their cars on her drive: "I ask them to move and they laugh. It's our house, my husband works away to pay the mortgage."

Michelle and Robert have complained to the police and to the university, but she said one officer just brushed off her concerns as they are "academics," and she added: "He said 'just don't live in Penryn.'"

She added that the landlord doesn't care as long as his rent is paid, and the university "is no support at all."

Now the couple are saving for a deposit on a new house. Michelle said: "It's a misery. I have been here seven years... when we moved in it was nice but it isn't any more. I've had it and I want to move.

"My life has been taken over."

There was one student in the neighbouring house when the Packet tried to get a comment, and he did not want to give his name.

He said the group had been visited by the police, who had explained "all the different processes we should go through," and added that they always sent a letter ahead of a party warning there "may be a bit of noise," but the Seabournes "never responded."

He said: "They go straight to the police and complain but they never come back to us."

He also said he thought there had been three occasions when there had been noise complaints, that they had parties "once a month, maximum, maybe three of four times since October," and the police had only been to see them once."

A spokesperson for FX Plus, Falmouth University and the University of Exeter’s shared services provider, said: "Falmouth University and the University of Exeter take any complaints about anti-social behaviour by students very seriously. We are not able to comment on specific cases, but always work proactively with the police and local environmental health officers to address any concerns. Our procedures for doing this have been agreed with the council and police.”