Bypass litter 'a disgrace'

6:33am Friday 7th March 2008

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LITTER along the Oxford Eastern Bypass has been branded a disgrace by a man who has called for urgent action to clean the area.

But Oxford City Council says mounting an operation to clear up the mess would cost too much.

David John, 70, said the state of the verges between Heyford Hill and Rose Hill roundabouts needed immediate attention.

Mr John, of Observatory Close, Benson, travels along the stretch of road to supermarkets and is baffled why the city council has not cleaned it up.

He said: "The sides of the roads are absolutely covered with litter. It looks like a dumping ground.

"I have never seen anything like this anywhere else, it is an absolute disgrace and I cannot understand why the council have not done something about it.

"Can you imagine what anyone coming into the city for the first time thinks when they see that mess? It looks bad and gives a very poor first impression of Oxford."

Mr John, a retired community psychiatric nurse, contacted the council to ask why the verges had not been cleaned, but was disappointed with its reply.

He said: "They said cleaning the verges would require the road to be closed, which would be far too disruptive to traffic and would cost too much.

"It makes me angry because they surely must be able to clean it some time."

Mr John is not the first person to raise the issue.

Last year, we reported how residents of the Rose Hill estate felt litter along that stretch of road had become a problem.

Stuart Price, 32, of Hunsdon Road in Rose Hill, said: "I work in Botley and use the ring road to get to work every day.

"That particular stretch is by far the dirtiest along the the ring road, there are empty cans, bottles and plastic bags all over the place.

"It looks absolutely awful and while I accept it is motorists causing the problem, it is the council's responsibility to tidy it up and they obviously are not doing that."

In March last year, West Oxfordshire District Council collected more than 12 tonnes of rubbish from verges in just 26 days.

The city council admitted the cost in cleaning up the roadside verges on the Eastern Bypass had prevented it from taking place on a regular basis.

A spokesman said: "In order to carry this out safely, a large-scale traffic management operation needs to take place while the work is undertaken.

"This obviously has quite significant cost implications.

"We hope the huge efforts being made by people taking part in OxClean over the weekend of March 14-16 will remind people of the environmental damage caused by disposing of litter inappropriately."

For details about how to get involved in OxClean, follow the link from oxfordcivicsoc.org.uk Alternatively, email oxclean@oxfordcivicsoc.org.uk