Sir – Any East Oxford resident trying to park will have noticed that Brookes students are back — and so are their all night parties. But luckily there’s the city council’s “Nuisance Nightline” to help — or is there ?

Last Wednesday, a neighbouring Brookes student informed me he would be having a birthday party on Friday — everyone confined indoors except the odd smoker.

While it started quiet, by 3am I was woken by their huge crackling bonfire and the very noisy people around it. At about 3.45am, fed up, I shouted at them, not too politely, to shut up — to no avail.

I then decided to ring the council’s nightline, but the number is no longer in the phone book. I eventually found it in the freesheet Your Oxford, and at 4.15am phoned the ‘contact centre’.

The helpful woman clearly had no knowledge of Oxford, and revealed she was in Cheshire — the nightline has been outsourced! She told me the duty official would phone back ‘very shortly’. Half an hour passed, no call. At 4.45am I phoned again — I should have been contacted, she told me, within half an hour, and she would report the failure.

I gave up and returned to bed. The party was still very noisy, and continued till 5.20am. Unlike the students, I had to get up at 7.30am for an important engagement.

Also unlike students, I pay council tax — sometimes I wonder what for. Why run a nightline if it does not function? Perhaps if they paid their executives less, they’d have more money for the useful jobs.

Without some sanction on night-time noise, students will continue to thoughtlessly ruin their neighbours’ sleep. I have reported the incident to Brookes, but I’m not holding my breath.

Anthony Cheke Oxford