THE parking dispute in Penryn took a sinister turn this week when 11 cars belonging to students studying at the Tremough campus were vandalised in a residential street.

Insp Dave Scott at Falmouth police station has appealed for calm and for people not to take the law into their own hands after the attacks on Saturday night.

His appeal follows the vandalism in Greenwood Road when up to 11 different vehicles were targeted, all owned by students who live on Tremough campus. Many were attacked near the Nisa store which was featured as a problem area in last week's Packet.

"Our concern is that someone local concerned about the parking problem in that area has taken the law into their own hands," said Insp Scott. "We are appealing to people not to take issue in this way. The sensible way to do it is through the town council and local councillors, district and county. The police are handling this with Tremough management to try and arrive at a solution.

"We feel there needs to be constructive dialogue around this issue causing conflict between people living in Penryn. When the Tremough site was first set up they were encouraging the use of alternative forms of transport. This has not happened.

"It needs everybody involved in this to come up with solutions. Everybody has got the right to park on roads anywhere as long as they are not causing an obstruction or committing other offences or parking dangerously. In Greenwood Road a lot of vehicles are parked there but people have no right to parking spaces outside their homes unless they pay for them which may be an option. We are taking this matter very seriously.

One of the students targeted, who does not want to be identified, says those who live on campus have no choice but too park their vehicles on private roads as they are not allowed to keep their cars on site.

"Students had three or four of their tyres completely slashed with a knife," he told the Packet. "It was a big penknife and I had my Rover car keyed as well.

"Somebody's gone on the rampage and caused all this damage but there is no other place we can park as we are not allowed to park on site even if we are living there.

"They have obviously just targeted the students as resident's cars have been left untouched. We weren't given any warning that this was going to happen if we continued to park there, they just went and slashed the tyres. This has cost me £120 and as a student I can't afford it. I'm not going to bother to get the keying repaired."

He said the students were now looking at parking elsewhere and were considering moving to the roads around the Jehovah's Witness centre.

The university is currently building another accommodation block to accommodate the extra students coming next year but there is no more parking provision.

Last week store owner Ron Letcher expressed resident's concerns over parking in Greenwood Road.

A statement issued by the university said: "We have been made aware that on Saturday night several cars, which were parked in Greenwood Road, Penryn, were vandalised. We condemn such vandalism but are not aware that students or staff from the Tremough Campus have been affected. As this is a criminal act, it is a police matter."