SIXTEEN streets have been branded the grubbiest in Oxford in a city-wide cleanliness survey.

Council workers check roads, pavements and gutters and analyse how much litter, dirt and detritis there is.

Those judged the muckiest made-up six per cent of all the roads inspected in July, the most recent month for which figures are available.

And the city council is blaming the aftermath of the January floods for the dip in standards.

Residents in the streets affected have called for more to be done to keep their neighbourhoods clean.

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Cumberland Road, off Cowley Road, was one of the streets deemed to be the worst.

But housegolders Sue and Joe Cumminssaid the blame didn’t fall solely on the council.

Mrs Cummins said: “The other day someone opened the door of their car after they had eaten a McDonald’s and dumped the packaging in the gutter.

“Maybe the council should put up more litter bins but I don’t know the answer to it other than kids should be taught to be more respectful and take their rubbish home.”

Mr Cummins said: “The streets here used to be beautiful, they were queuing up to live here. Now it’s a junk hole.

“When I came here in 1963 the streets were beautifully clean.

“The women use to come out to scrub the bit of pavement outside their house so it was all clean.”

One street along, on Kenilworth Avenue, Mohammed Azram said the council could do more.

He said: “I have lived here for about 12 years. It is pretty dirty, especially when it rains. We get all the branches and leaves. The council doesn’t really come around, I hardly ever see anybody on this road.

“Cowley is one of Oxford’s main areas so they should pay more attention to it.”

The council’s examination of streets puts them in categories ranked A, B and C, based on how clean they are.

Six per cent of streets in July were deemed to fall into category C, which meant there was widespread distribution of litter and debris.

Under council targets three per cent of streets or less should fall into this category.

City council spokesman Chofamba Sithole said targets had been missed due to flooding earlier in the year. He said: “The aftermath of the floods caused a dip in standards across the city as a whole from January.

“The cleansing teams were undertaking deep cleans of streets that had been affected by the floods earlier in the year.

“Additional resources were needed for this which meant that other parts of the city had a reduced service for a short period resulting in an overall drop in standard.”

“It will take several months to return to the three per cent target but we are confident that this will be reached as the trend in the statistics confirm improvement.”

Headington councillor Mohammed Altaf-Khan said: “There are some issues down there because it’s very busy, with lots of people.

“There is lots of traffic coming through, so people do throw and leave litter. The cleaning teams need to prioritise those streets.”

St Margaret’s city councillor Liz Wade said: “The problem on Hayfield Road is that the bins aren’t emptied enough.

“They are emptied sporadically, when it should be every day. I have asked for either larger bins or another bin, which would help.”

What do you think? Email your views to letters@oxfordmail.co.uk

Recovering from the floods

Major flooding hit Oxford in January and February this year causing serious disruption and damage.
Abingdon Road was closed twice during January and Febraury whilst Botley Road was also shut for a number of days due to floodwater in the worst floods in the city since 2007 acording to the Environment Agency.
One thousand sandbags were delivered in early February to properties across the county included Bullstake Close in Oxford. Flood levels hit 2.42 metres at King’s Mill off Marston Road, just shy of the record level of 2.69 metres previously recorded there.

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St Margaret’s councillor Liz Wade, top, and Cowley residents Mohammed Azram and Sue Cummins, above

The list of affected streets

Bainton Road
Belbroughton Road
Blackstock Close
Charlbury Road
Cumberland Road
Demesne Furze
Don Stuart Place
Gillians Way
Hayfield Road
Hendred Street
Kenilworth Avenue
Laurel Farm Close
Lonsdale Road
Mileway Gardens
New High Street
Pauling Road

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