PUBLIC sharps bins could be set up in Southampton in a bid to keep the city’s streets clean of dangerous drug litter.

That’s the recommendation made by a council-led probe looking to tackle the city’s drug litter problem.

It comes after figures revealed there were more than 7,500 items of drug paraphernalia found in Southampton last year – mostly in the city centre.

And sharps boxes, the panel says, could provide a “logical" solution to reducing drug litter.

In a report, due to be discussed last night, it said: “A logical approach could be to make it as easy as possible for people who inject drugs to do the right thing with their used equipment, by installing discrete public sharps bins in appropriate locations.”

The report added that the locations could be communicated to users through a needle exchange.

According to the report, there are currently no public sharps bins in Southampton.

However the yellow bins, which take used needles, and syringes are found in some private buildings – such as health facilities.

Last year, Belfast City Council installed an extra six public sharps bins to allow injecting drug users to safely dispose of used syringes.

The move followed an increase in syringe finds.

The idea is one of five recommendations set to be put before Southampton City Council bosses later this year, following a six month inquiry.

The inquiry panel will also recommend the council join forces with charities and health bosses to lobby the government for a change in law – to allow a ‘drug consumption room’ in the city.

It says the rooms, nicknamed “shooting galleries”, would allow heroin addicts a safe and secure place to take drugs, away from members of the public.

City council cabinet member for health, Dave Shields, said he would keep an “open mind” about the recommendations.

The inquiry’s findings will be put before the council’s overview and scrutiny committee, before it is discussed by the cabinet later this year.