They are logging on in Russia and Australia, but residents in Blackbird Leys are not switched on to their community website.

Now an estate stalwart in Blackbird Leys is urging people to make it the estate’s digital hub.

Parish councillor Brian Lester, who previously quit the council in 2007 over ‘apathy’ on the estate, says he wants more people to get involved.

He and fellow councillors unveiled a new community website, leysonline.net, in March. Creators had hoped it would become a central hub with local news, council meeting information, contact details and local history.

But seven months later, they are getting hits from far-flung places but are disappointed with the lack of interest from local residents.

Council vice-chairman Mr Lester said: “I’m so passionate about this website, I know it could make a difference.

“Every day, the first thing I do is to log on and see how many hits there are.

“But I want other people to get interested and motivated about it. It’s not just the website, I was people to get motivated about where they live.”

The website was the third relaunch of the site in eight years. Mr Lester said previous sites had failed as councillors did not update the site regularly and could not keep up with technological changes.

He said: “But now the website is there, I’ve got in touch with so many groups and no one seems to be interested.There are Scouts and Brownie groups, the people on the allotments, I want everyone on there.”

Previous websites at one point were getting 1,000 hits, but it now struggles to reach 20 a day. But the visits on the site come from as far as Russia and Australia.

Mr Lester said: “I want people to get interested in their community.

“We need more people at parish council meetings, even if we just had four or five public members at a time.

“And even if we got into big arguments with them about plans we were making, that’s what we’re there for.

“People need to be interested in their own futures.”

In 2007, Mr Lester left the parish council after 14 years, saying residents had a lack of pride in their estate.

He said: “You have 18,000 people on this estate and I have busted my cobbles for eight or nine years trying to get people interested.”