PATROLS of ‘party-poopers’ will scour Oxford listening for noisy students, under new proposals from the city council.

The Labour administration wants to spend £12,000-a-year on setting up night-time patrols during the universities’ Freshers’ Weeks, at weekends and the end of university terms to bring a halt to rowdy late-night student parties that affect residents in East Oxford.

Two environmental health officers, with backing from the police, will tour known late-night troublespots. They will have powers to confiscate music equipment and fine rowdy students.

To fund the initiative, it is planned to scale back the out-of-hours service run by the environmental health team, so that calls about noise nuisance will only be answered between 11pm and 4am. Calls deemed “low priority” will no longer be dealt with.

The councillor behind the plan, John Tanner, said the proposals in the council’s 2012 budget would be a better use of public money.

He said: “We will experiment and see what works and build on that.

“People aren’t going to be out every night but when there are likely to be noise problems, so that they can deal with them, talk to people and tell them to turn it down before problems arise.”

He added: “I don’t think parties are a growing problem, but one much bigger in some areas than others.”

Ed Chipperfield, of the James Street Residents’ Association, said the same homes had problem tenants year after year.

Divinity Road Area Residents’ Association chairman Elizabeth Mills said: “It’s not just students; it’s all sorts of people.”