MITCHAM Council wants Flinders University to create more on-campus car parking because student cars are clogging nearby streets.

Residents say cars “circle like sharks” in neighbouring streets and one councillor says she is “horrified” the university charges students to use its parking.

The council will write to the university and ask it to investigate the potential to add extra carparks to the 5000 already available at its Bedford Park campus.

Councillor Elaine Grimm, who asked the council to contact the university, said parking concerns for residents were “appalling”.

“It’s not fair to anybody that students are parking in hilly residential streets ... it’s wearing the residents a bit thin,” she said.

Forcing students to pay for on-campus parking had exacerbated the issue.

Students pay $3 to park for two hours and $4.50 for all-day parking. They pay $145 for yearly parking permits or $82 for semester-long permits.

“I was quite horrified when I found out students have to pay for parking,” she said.

“In Adelaide, I can understand because there’s lots of public transport, but there’s not enough at Flinders.”

She said a lack of public transport to the university was a major factor forcing students to drive.

“It’s too hard for students because not only does transport not come from many areas, it’s not very regular and there’s quite a gap between each bus.”

Mitcham also wants Flinders to consider adding student spaces at the site of its new $120 million teaching and research centre at Tonsley Park, which will open next year.

Bellevue Heights resident Les Elekes prompted the action to investigate parking after complaining student cars “are circling like sharks” and flooding local streets, at Mitcham’s April 22 meeting.

The request follows Flinders opening a new 250-space car park near Bellevue Drive in March, in addition to its 2000 overflow parks on the university’s oval.

Mr Elekes, who has lived in the street for 40 years, said despite the new carpark, there were about 100 extra cars driving through nearby streets daily and it was getting worse.

“Cars are circling like sharks trying to move around their prey and find somewhere to park,” he told the meeting.”

“This is a residential area, it’s not university territory and it should not be invaded.”

Mr Elekes said he hoped to avoid any need to introduce timed parking on local streets to manage the problem.

A spokesman for Flinders University said the existing number of car parks was sufficient to cater for the number of students parking at the site.

“The university has never needed to fully utilise its car parking capacity including overflow parking,” the spokesman said.

However the university was lobbying the State Government to improve public transport links to its Bedford Park and Tonsley campuses, he said.

“The university is working closely with the State Government, including providing data on where our students travel from, their travel patterns and times, to inform public transport planning and making public transport services as effective as possible.”

The Tonsley train line began operating again last week, almost two and a half years after the State Government closed the line for electrification and partial duplication.