VILLAGERS took matters into their own hands with a community litter pick over the weekend to rid their area of rubbish.

Two neighbours from Ambrosden, near Bicester, arranged for dozens of volunteers to pick up rubbish from the village.

More than 30 people removed several bags of litter from the village’s hedgerows, bushes and streets on Sunday and celebrated with a picnic in the afternoon.

Alan Hutton went along to the event with his wife, Marie, and two sons Jamie, 10, and eight-year-old Cayden.

The telecommunications engineer said: “We were there for about an hour picking up litter to get involved in the community spirit.”

Cayden added: “We wanted to make the village look a bit more tidier. There were boxes and crisp packets. I think people should take more care of their rubbish.”

Organiser Alyson Clifton said: “I thought the village looked a bit neglected and there was rubbish dumped everywhere.

“When I tried to talk to the councils about it they kept saying it was someone else’s responsibility.

“There’s so much red tape it meant everybody was passing the buck and nobody was actually doing anything.”

The mum-of-three, who runs a cleaning business, said the group picked up more than 30 plastic bags of litter.

She said: “The amount of rubbish we collected was unbelievable, with the weirdest things. There were car tyres, a road sign, some random car parts that weighed a ton, a lawnmower.

“It’s disgusting that people just chuck that stuff in bushes and things.”

Mrs Clifton, who has lived in Ambrosden for just over a year, said: “We decided we would also do a picnic to get more people involved. I went round to loads of businesses and companies and loads donated food or money.

“We only decided to do it a couple of weeks ago but people who couldn’t make it have been tidying up outside their homes too.

“The village looks completely different now there isn’t rubbish flying around everywhere.

“Hopefully it will make people think when they see some litter to pick it up instead of walking past.”

Mrs Clifton arranged the litter pick with her neighbour Louise Beaumont, who has lived in the village for the past eight years.

The police community support officer, 41, said: “I was fed up with seeing rubbish everywhere.

“Rather than keep whinging about it I decided to do something about it. It was really positive, we’ll definitely do it again next year.”