Problems facing young couples in Falmouth looking for somewhere to live have been laid bare with a petition calling for better quality affordable properties.

Rebecca Kitts was born and bred in the town and works for A&P Falmouth at the docks. Yet when she and her boyfriend Adam Sefton, who works at the Falmouth Hotel, started looking for somewhere to rent together they were horrified by the options available to them and the attitude they received from landlords - despite both being in steady jobs.

While development work is taking place across the town to build new student accommodation, young couples such as Rebecca and Adam, both aged 20, are facing a fight to even view properties.

This has prompted Rebecca to start a petition titled 'Affordable Rental Properties for the Young People of Falmouth'.

She said: "My boyfriend and I started looking for a place to rent in Falmouth and at first glance there appeared to be a lot of choice.

"Unfortunately when we enquired further there seemed to be a very large proportion that were restricted to students only, and the landlords were not willing to consider us - despite us both having full time jobs and being more capable of paying the same rent as a student.

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"Whilst we appreciate that we would have to pay council tax on top of this, as students don’t, we were more than happy to pay this.

"We found that the only properties available to us to rent were either very dodgy, run down or way out of our price range."

Eventually the couple were forced to settle on a small attic flat, which they say is costing them more than an average student would pay.

At the same time they have seen a large development of student accommodation being built in the area, and a further development is under construction.

Rebecca believes that developers should have to allocate a proportion of these flats in such blocks to local young people - something she said would also help integrate the student population with the town's residents.

"These are modern, spacious and relatively luxurious but unfortunately not available for young local people.

"We feel that this is a very unfair situation and that developers of these properties should be forced to allocate at least 25 per cent of these developments to local working people, possibly up to a certain age," said Rebecca.

"This would give young local couples or singles the opportunity to obtain a decent standard of accommodation at a reasonable price and in addition would help integrate the transient student population with the locals.

"I feel sure that this situation is not restricted to just Falmouth but will probably occur in many other university towns and cities.

"I'm not sure whether this would require a change of policy of the national government or local government, but would appeal for advice and supportive signatures to put my case forward in helping us achieve this."

Her petition currently has just over half the signatures she hopes to collect, with 107 people signing out of the 200-signature goal.

It can be signed at www.change.org/p/cornwall-council-affordable-rental-properties-for-the-young-people-of-falmouth