The University of Otago is considering paying for extra rubbish collections to keep North Dunedin streets clean.
Dunedin City Council water and waste group manager Laura McElhone said at yesterday's planning and regulatory meeting the council was in discussions with the university about increasing the level of service in the student quarter.
She made the comments as the committee was discussing a report assessing the collaboration of the council, police, the university, Campus Watch and Otago University Students' Association during this year's Orientation Week.
‘‘We are just looking at some options with them for both additional collections and street cleaning to see if there is something that they are comfortable to fund,'' Ms McElhone said.
In response to a question from committee chairman David Benson-Pope about blue bins used for glass recycling, she said they were looking at weekly collections for glass and different-sized bins so glass was less likely to spread from the bins on to the street.
Cr Aaron Hawkins asked whether the council could look at targeting a rate at people who owned property in the area to help pay for the increased service.
Ms McElhone said this would be among the options the council could look at if more funding was needed from the council.
Asked about efforts aimed at reducing glass in the student quarter, the council's general manager services and development Simon Pickford said it was in the ‘‘early stages'' of looking at restricting the availability of glass in the student area, which would probably involve a voluntary accord for alcohol outlets.
Ms McElhone detailed some of the extra measures the council took during this year's Orientation Week to keep the streets free from rubbish, which included having extra rubbish pick-ups and roving crews checking for rubbish twice a day.
‘‘It was really a blitz approach.''
In response to a question from Cr Kate Wilson, she said it was ‘‘difficult to say'' whether the council's increased efforts had resulted in improved behaviour from students.
‘‘Certainly, it would be difficult to imagine that you didn't get some benefit from ‘well it looks tidy, so I am not going to be the first one to throw something'.''
Cr Hilary Calvert said given the report's finding non-students were responsible for much of the misbehaviour during Orientation Week, the council should look at renaming the report and removing the word ‘‘student behaviour'' from the title in future.
Customer and regulatory services group manager Adrian Blair said Cr Calvert had made a ‘‘really good point'' and staff would look at making the change in future reports.
