THE Botley Bag Lady caused a small furore recently after being awarded the unlikely accolade of her own appreciation page online, where locals posted their photos of her wherever she was spotted – yes you’ve guessed it usually in Botley Road.

We all know who she is of course – she’s been rummaging through Oxford’s bins for decades, totally disinterested and unaware of her growing fame.

But with the advent of social media, her little enclave seems in danger of being ambushed. So is she being turned into a game, a new gimmick for the nimble fingered, or is it all a bit of light-hearted fun?

After all I doubt she is on Twitter or Facebook, let alone bebo, and I doubt she cares.

The question is, are we taking advantage of her or not? Because, regardless of her mental state, the Botley Bag Lady seems happy enough doing what she’s doing, hauling great bags of rubbish and paper around with her.

She doesn’t harm anyone that I know of, and she must be enormously fit compared to her contemporaries. I can’t think of many people her age (whatever that is) who spend that amount of time on their feet.

In fact, she could probably teach us all a thing or two about fresh air and exercise, if not personal hygiene and waxing.

Neither am I deriding her mental health issues, or belittling her journey, but the Botley Bag Lady is who she is, and is now part of Oxford’s rich tapestry.

But it’s the debate that interests me.

She has several appreciation pages online, website pages dedicated to her, as well as chat forums, and what started out as a bit of fun and some amateur pap shots, has now turned into an earnest debate, with the more right-on members of our society wading in to condemn the whole exercise as cruel, adding that they should leave her alone.

Others argue that as the Botley Bag Lady is a legendary figure in Oxford and an integral part of its history, that posting sightings of her aren’t disrespectful, if anything the opposite.

The debate reached a crisis when the Facebook page was removed, but the web is still littered with quotes dedicated to her such as: “Imperfection is beauty; madness is genius. And it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring”– Marilyn Monroe.

It’s all well and good for Marilyn to say so, but she had beauty and madness, and I’m not sure the Botley Bag Lady can be put in the same category as one of Hollywood’s most iconic legends.

However, in a city famous for its eccentrics, where competition is steep, and fame fleeting, perhaps her ability to make a name for herself, means her legend will live on far longer than us and our silly websites, as long as we don’t interfere and just admire her from afar.

I wonder what the Leveson inquiry would have to say?