A report released by the Dunedin City Council yesterday revealed the balcony - which tenants of the Castle St flat agreed would contain no more than eight people - was ‘‘critically overloaded'', causing the joists to give way and resulting in 16 or 17 concert-goers plummeting 3m, landing on others below.
Two people were seriously injured.
University of Otago student Bailley Unahi is still in Burwood Hospital with serious spinal injuries following the incident.
Sixteen others suffered minor injuries during the Six60 concert last month.
The report clears the building's owner of wrongdoing and says the 1999-built balcony was made to design and code for the time.
However, Mr Cull said the concert should never have been held at a student flat.
‘‘A silly, single tragic decision to hold the event in the wrong place has led to some pretty major consequences for some of those there,'' he said.
An email to the band's management was unanswered as of late last night.
Mr Cull said Six60 needed to take responsibility for its organisation of the event.
‘‘They would have been endeavouring to encourage as many people as possible to get in there,'' he said.
‘‘It's a residential area. It's not the right place for that.
‘‘The management of the band should have thought of the possible consequences of holding that concert there.
‘‘They kept it reasonably under wraps, so you would have to ask why they did that.''
The report recommended testing the remaining intact joists from the balcony, investigating the effects nails had on the structure's integrity, and appointing a timber expert to assess the quality of the joists.
It also recommended referring the report to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - which was also investigating the collapse - and forwarding a copy to the drafting committee examining possible updates to the building code.
The University of Otago said, in an emailed statement, it supported the recommendations in the report.
‘‘The university ... will fully involve itself as a priority in discussions with the DCC, police and others to come up with ways to ensure that safety considerations are more fully incorporated into the planning around future private events involving students in the North Dunedin area,'' the statement said.
Council services and development general manager Simon Pickford said the balcony was built to code and the building had consent.
‘‘While it's important to know the balcony was built to code, the key issues centre on the event itself and where it was held,'' he said.
‘‘This was a great initiative where students were enjoying themselves.
‘‘However, this wasn't a suitable location for the concert and as a city we need to work out the best way for students to have fun while they are in Dunedin, but to do it safely.
‘‘We are all very aware students were seriously hurt as a result of this incident and we want to reduce the chances of anything like this happening again.''
The council had already suggested the property's owner seek engineering advice and strengthen the other balconies.
The report said a different loading standard for balconies, particularly in the student precinct, could be implemented if MBIE changed the law.
The council suggested the ministry assess the report's proposal and allow councils to enforce higher standards than the current code, Mr Pickford said.
‘‘If someone came to us tomorrow and said they wanted to build high-density accommodation to house students in, we couldn't require them to build it to a higher standard than this one built 16 years ago,'' he said.
While he was supportive of assessing the report's proposal, he said there was a need to remain circumspect.
‘‘We have to be careful we don't overreact to this event,'' he said.
‘‘Balconies don't collapse every week. This was an extreme outcome from an extreme event.''
Mr Cull was also supportive of strengthening the building code in relation to student housing.
‘‘We think the Government should consider if there is a case for a different standard,'' he said.
He also mooted establishing rules which governed events in the student quarter.
‘‘We need to consider having some protocols. They might be voluntary in the first instance, that if you are holding events in the university area you have to follow certain rules,'' he said.
‘‘We have a precedent for that in some way in the Hyde St party.''
A report, which would assess behaviour in the student quarter, would be tabled with the council within the next month.
‘‘We have developed a much more tolerant attitude in North Dunedin because of the sheer density of students and their traditions of big parties there and, in the main, they are pretty good natured,'' he said.
‘‘The last Orientation we saw some improvement.''
The council would continue to work with the university, police and the Otago University Students' Association to improve student safety and behaviour, he said.
