10:14am Sunday 17th August 2008
By Tom Shepherd
Waste chiefs are urging residents to join forces and target litter hotspots in Oxfordshire.
Oxford city councillor John Tanner, chairman of Oxfordshire Waste Partnership (OWP), told the Oxford Mail he wanted to spearhead the biggest clean-up in the county's history.
The former Lord Mayor of Oxford said next month councils would lend litter-picking equipment to anyone who wanted to organise a clean-up.
The initiative forms part of the Big Tidy Up, a national litter blitz running throughout September organised by Keep Britain Tidy.
In Oxfordshire, councils spend an estimated £4.25m on litter-picking and flytipping annually. The Vale of White Horse District Council alone spent more than £1m.
Nationally, UK taxpayers fork out £500m a year to clean up 30 million tonnes of litter from our streets.
Mr Tanner said: "We can all do our bit in September by not dropping litter and picking up the rubbish left by other people, but why not organise a rubbish clear-up yourself?
"Cleaner streets and parks in Oxfordshire look good and save taxpayers' money."
The OWP represents the county's four district councils, Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. Spokesman Paul Mocroft said collectively councils already worked hard to keep the county looking clean.
He added: "The problem we have in Oxfordshire is that we are not an untidy place - we are one of the cleanest counties in the country.
"It's hard to motivate people because it's such a lovely place to live, but there's always room for improvement.
"We are not spotless and we really want to target hotspots. Litter costs everybody."
Mr Mocroft said a big clean-up event was already in the pipeline for Oxford at the end of next month - along the same lines as Oxford Civic Society's spring clean in March which saw 11.5 tonnes of litter collected in the city over just one weekend. He said: "We are hoping to involve the whole county and organise a big event in each district."
Councils are particularly encouraging people who take part in a litter blitz to separate litter for recycling before it is collected.
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