Amber Marshall thought she would take advantage of the quiet season by parking in Castle St North, closer to work than the staff parks near Forsyth Barr Stadium.
However, what she thought was a tactical decision paid off poorly when her new Mazda —with only about 40,000km on the odometer — failed a warrant because of unsafe tyres.
Now out of pocket for more than $1000 for a new set of tyres, she wanted to know why the Dunedin City Council had not given the area a deep clean while the students were away.
Ms Marshall said her mechanics assessed the tyres and found them full of cuts and embedded glass "all the way through to the cording".
They picked glass out of the rubber and showed it to her.
Many other people parked on the street, so she assumed it would be all right.
However, now she was worried others would have the same issue when they went to get their vehicle checked.
The tyres were otherwise in fairly good condition.
They still had "heaps of tread" on them.
She could not think of any other reason they would be cut so badly.
With the students away for summer, now was the time for the council to take action, she said.
She contacted the council but was not satisfied with its response.
"They didn’t see at all interested in coming down here."
A council spokesman said it regularly swept the streets and provided glass kerbside collection around the University and North Dunedin area.
There were also recycling hubs and dedicated glass bins.
It responded to callouts when there was an event or lots of smashed glass around.
The council did not offer any compensation to vehicles damaged by glass.
It had received complaints about similar issues in the past, he said.
Last month, the council announced it would increase the frequency of collection services in the student precinct to a weekly service from July next year.
