Sir – I applaud the efforts of students at our two universities to persuade letting agencies to postpone the annual ‘letting frenzy’ for private student accommodation until February each year.

Not only would that allow students to make better choices about where they want to live and with whom, it would also reduce the ‘to let’ sign blight that afflicts many streets in our city for much of each year.

Signs now go up in October or November, a good ten months before the start of new tenancies. Some soon have a ‘let’ or ‘too late’ notice added to them.

Whilst agents appear to have the time to add those notices — after all that increases the frenzy — few of them take the time to remove the signs themselves within 14 days of a new tenancy being agreed, as the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations of 1992 require.

Far too many signs remain in place until spring or even summer, when it is convenient for agents to remove them.

I feel sorry for students who move into their houses in late September, and then just a few weeks later a ‘to let’ sign goes up right outside their front door. They have had hardly a moment to enjoy their expensive tenancy in peace.

I also feel sorry for owner-occupiers who are trying to sell their homes. People coming to view the property take one look at all the ‘to let’ signs on the street and become concerned about the ‘stability’ of the neighbourhood.

The way forward is to restore balance between the legitimate needs of letting agents, on the one hand, and residents (including tenants), on the other. That balance has been skewed in favour of letting agents for far too long!

Ann Waswo, Oxford