Students in Dundee’s West End are so raucous they should be segregated from the rest of the population, it has been claimed.
The suggestion came to light in one of six objection letters filed by residents resisting new applications for rental licences in the area.
Landlords have lodged 16 House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) applications and 21 renewals, with the council’s licensing committee.
One of the objections suggests the large rental flats should “cease to exist”.
Resident FJ Dobson said: “In my opinion, the university should be required to provide dedicated student accommodation sufficient for their intake, away from other residents of the city.
“HMOs should cease to exist, and in the meantime street policing of known problem areas be stepped up.”
Another complaint, from Ann Keenan, about a property on Mitchell Street, states: “Short-term residents have no interest in building up relationships with neighbours nor invest in their accommodation.”
However, Ian MacKinnon, president of Dundee University Students’ Association, hit back, saying some of the claims put forward in objection letters were “preposterous”.
He said: “To imply that students and ‘normal’ people can’t mix just doesn’t make sense.
“Students are normal people, most of them are also working people who have to work to pay their way.
“They care about where they live, they care about their neighbours.
“People can have neighbourly issues with anyone, and to pin something on students without any issue is unfair.
“I think there are people who simply assume the worst and make judgments before meeting the people they live next to.
“As for the idea of housing students separately, Dundee and Abertay together have more than 20,000 students. How that person imagines they’ll be housed, I don’t know.”
A Police Scotland spokesman said the student population did not have high levels of criminality compared to other groups.
The applications will be considered at a meeting of the licensing committee tomorrow.