A STUDENT landlord has called for face-to-face talks over a city’s controversial To Let signs.

With at least 12,000 students in Durham, the signs are unpopular with many of long-term residents.

Last month, Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods urged Durham County Council to stop the boards blemishing the city’s historic character, saying they were extremely unsightly.

Stuart Timmiss, the council’s head of planning, said he had made no secret of its intention to reduce to proliferation of the signs in Durham.

Now Peter Smith, founding partner of Student Home Zone, has called for all parties involved to sit down together to discuss the issue.

He said: "I don’t like To Let signs but from a commercial point of view, we have to put them up, because we everybody else does.

"I would say: come and talk to us and we’ll try to help. We would like to see a forum develop including Durham Students’ Union, landlords, residents and tenants.

"That would be far better than trading insults. We’re made to feel excluded from the dialogue."

Student Home Zone runs 112 properties in Durham, making it one of the city’s handful of major student landlords. Many other rented homes are owned by smaller companies and individuals.

Mr Smith said To Let signs were usually displayed from November to January only.

He said: "I feel we’re acting within the law. We try at all times to take them down within 14 days of the contract being finalised."

Dr Blackman-Woods said: "If the view of everyone is that a voluntary agreement can be made to work then great, but until I see it work I’m not convinced.

"I will give the council a bit of time but if nothing happens in the next month I’ll be pressing for a new policy, which they should have had in place already."

Professor Chris Hutchison, city liaison officer for Durham University, said there was a "considerable excess" of multiple occupancy housing in Durham, seen in the number of "unsightly" To Let signs around the city.

"The university strongly opposes further conversion of family homes and urges landlords to pay considerable attention to the appearance of their rental properties," he said.