SIR. There is an obvious answer to the "shortfall" of student accommodation in Kingston that Professor David Miles complains of (Thousands more student houses are needed, Surrey Comet, Oct 24). If you lack 2,500 places for students to live in, then you could just recruit 2,500 fewer students.

But the university will not do this, of course, because its financial interests lie in continuing expansion.

It is disingenuous to suggest, as he does, that there will be less pressure on the private market if the university is allowed to build more accommodation in the borough. Because university funding is dependent on student numbers - and in addition can be handsomely topped up by the large fees paid by students recruited abroad - the university will rapidly fill any space available to it, and and then look to expand further.

The issue the council should be considering is how many students are too many for this small borough, and how they are going to maintain a balanced community here. We may not have a student ghetto yet, but that's not for want of trying by the university (they still have aspirations to build a student village on the Lower Marsh Lane site).

The clubs, pubs and fast food outlets in Kingston flourish because of the student population, but mean that there's precious little for anyone over 40 in the town centre, and there is a growing blight apparent to the houses in once-graceful residential streets near the university, as well as the noise and vandalism suffered by those living near, or on the route to, university sites.

Heather Forrester
Bloomfield Road, Kingston