FOREIGN language students are facing new punishments as officials clamp down on littering and drinking.

Visiting students are being blamed for a rising amount of rubbish in South Park, with one local councillor claiming they are causing more problems than in previous years.

Police have started ordering students found in South Park to return the next morning to clean up their mess.

And officers, Oxford City Council, language school bosses and the bus companies will meet next month to look at other ways to stop visitors causing problems.

Police have also made some students surrender their alcohol. So far 24 students’ names have been taken by police and reported to their colleges.

The council’s leisure and parks team has also started logging how much mess they are clearing up, so the problem can be monitored in coming years.

In the past four weeks the litter team has removed an average of 45 large sacks of rubbish per week from South Park, with 16 collected on a single visit.

Altaf Khan, city councillor for Headington Hill and Northway, said immediate action was needed.

He said: “This is the worst year yet. We need to do something before it gets out of hand.

“Students are good for the economy but more needs to be done.”

Divinity Road Resident Association chairman Elizabeth Mills said: “It’s appalling the rubbish in South Park.

“You can’t take your dog out in the morning because of the rubbish that’s left behind.”

Meanwhile commuters using the city’s buses say they are fed up with large groups of teenagers boarding services with no change.

Headington Liberal Democrat city councillor Ruth Wilkinson has written to some of the 40-odd language schools urging them to follow colleges, such as D’overbroeck’s in Summertown, which order bus passes in advance for their pupils.

Louisa Weeks, of Oxford Bus Company, said: “We recognise how important the summer schools are to Oxford’s economy.

“We think it is a positive way forward and we look forward to attending the meeting.”

A spokesman for the city council said: “We are planning on holding a meeting in September to look back on issues that occurred during the summer to see if we can prevent them happening in future.

“The council will be inviting the local bus companies, local language schools, Oxford Brookes University and the local neighbourhood police teams to this meeting. A date has not yet been fixed.”

Nuala Young, Green city councillor for St Clement’s, wants to revive the old city council language schools forum to tackle issues.

She said: “I’m thinking of putting a resolution forward to go back to the language school forum and see if there’s any way we can have them regulated because many leave the pupils running riot.”

Peter Wilkinson, of Rose Hill Residents’ Association, said: “We get a large number in Rose Hill and they simply fill the buses.

“One resident said she had the last seat on the bus as it started.”

Graham Jones, of traders’ group Rox, said: “It’s great that a lot of young people from the continent are being encouraged to come to Oxford, but it seems they have been left a little to their own devices and if they haven’t got sufficient resources then they find their own fun.”

Simon Talbot, head of student services at Oxford-based language college British Study Centres, backed the idea of a code of conduct for language schools. He added: “We are clear that we absolutely have a responsibility to care for our students and for their impact on the community.

“When they arrive in Oxford I do a welcome talk every Monday for our new students and explain to them about Britain and British culture and how we queue at bus stops.”

He said a scheme that operates in Cambridge to teach visiting students about personal safety and their own conduct could be replicated in Oxford.