UNIVERSITY students will be employed to act as street wardens in a bid to improve relations between students and residents in the Winton area of Bournemouth.

A team of six students will deal with noise and antisocial behaviour while also helping students as they learn how to live away from home.

Each warden will work around five to six hours a week and will be paid for their efforts, with the funding coming from both the university and the council.

The scheme, which will start as a pilot project in the autumn, is similar to those in operation in Oxford and Birmingham.

Pat Oakley, chair of the Winton Community Forum, visited both cities to see how their schemes worked. He said: “Both started with six student wardens and now have 14 and 16 respectively. They have been very successful and I am confident that our pilot will be the same.”

“It’s been really exciting talking to the young people who are engaging with their local communities. They are an example to us all and have genuinely made their neighbourhood a better place to live.

“As well as helping the students learn how to live away from home for the first time there has been a significant reduction in anti social behaviour incidents in the areas the wardens operate.”

The scheme will initially concentrate on the roads with the highest numbers of students, including Cardigan Road, Green Road and Sedgley Road.

Mr Oakley said: “The students in Winton are a big part of the community, they are not separate to it. The university is a big asset to the town and the optimum is to get people living together in Winton happily.”

Winton East Councillor Theo Stratton said: “I think this is an absolutely fantastic idea. At the moment the council can only step in when problems escalate and go that step too far. This is a fantastic way to nip problems in the bud.

“Hopefully, come September, we won’t have anywhere near the number of problems we have had in the past.”