Volunteers give city some sparkle with Oxclean 2011 (From Oxford Mail)

Volunteers give city some sparkle with Oxclean 2011

WEARING gloves and high-visibility jackets, more than 1,700 volunteers gave Oxford a spring clean at the weekend.

Clockwise from above, Ann Marie Browne, Safiya Patterson, Pippa Gwilliam and Roz Smith at Barton

They cleaned up the city’s streets, parks, public spaces and roadsides until there wasn’t a crisp packet left in sight.

About 118 community groups were involved in this year’s project, including residents’ associations, churches, schools, and university students.

The city’s ring road looked much cleaner after volunteers bagged up fly-tipped waste and left the bags in neat piles on the roadside for collection by council staff.

Last year, residents collected 10,000kg of rubbish including large quantities of scrap metal and dumped waste.

Oxford Brookes students

The spring clean is supported by The Oxford Times, Oxford City Council and Oxford Civic Society.

Groups across the city spent two hours on Friday and Saturday clearing their neighbourhoods.

The campaign group has also launched a “Don’t drop it” campaign aimed at tackling the root cause of litter problems.

Ros Weatherall, chairman of OxClean’s steering committee, joined about 20 members of the Civic Society to pick litter along the cycle path in Barracks Lane, East Oxford.

She said: “We hope this will encourage groups to pick litter at other times of year as well and I know the city council appreciates our efforts.

Roz Smith, Derek Taylor and John Green at Risinghurst

“Along Barracks Lane we found mostly drinks cans, crisp packets, chocolate wrappers and fast food wrappers.

“I suspect some of it has been dropped by school pupils walking home in groups who perhaps think it is not cool to look for a litter bin. We want attitudes to change.”

Roz Smith, county councillor for Barton and Churchill, was joined by members of the Barton Community Association for a litter pick near the shops at Underhill Circus.

She said: “We have been picking litter alongside Bayswater Brook and it looked much better afterwards.

“I was picking litter in London Road, near Risinghurst, and I found 27 bags of dog mess. The owners had bagged up the mess and then thrown it in the hedge.”

Adult learning support worker Ann Marie Browne, 45, from Barton, took part in the clean-up with her daughter Safiya Patterson, 11.

She said: “Litter really bugs me when I see it so I wanted to join in.”

Safiya, a pupil at Headington Girls’ School, added: “I wanted to clean up the environment so that it’s nicer to look at.”

Copy editor Pippa Gwilliam, 57, of Poundfield Close, who also took part in the Barton event, said: “The city will look fantastic for a few days after this but unfortunately people will go back to their bad old ways.