A campaigner against flytipping has branded as "scumbags" people using an Oxford nature reserve for a dump.

Brian Lester has campaigned against litter and flytipping on the Blackbird Leys estate for more than a decade.

But he was disgusted after a clean-up operation on Wednesday revealed bikes, clothes and motorcycles dumped at the Spindleberry Nature Reserve on the estate.

Three children's scooters, five push bikes, a moped, T-shirts, jumpers and sackfuls of litter were removed during a day-long tidy up.

Many of the items had been dumped in Spindleberry Brook and Spindleberry Pond, and Mr Lester said: "I think it is just disgusting.

"It is just beyond me that these people are such scumbags.

"It is so disappointing."

Mr Lester was the chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council for more than a decade until May, when he resigned after becoming exasperated with apathy on the estate towards flytipping.

He said: "There are people that just do not care how they are destroying their local amenities.

"The pond is not much of an amenity, but you have fish and wildlife in there. It is a nature reserve and people do not care."

The clean-up operation was arranged by the estate's street wardens as one of 50 events marking the 50th anniversary of Blackbird Leys.

Police Community Support Officers, countryside rangers and members of the public joined the wardens in picking up litter and removing obstructions from the brook.

Malcolm Taylor, senior street warden, said: "I did not realise there was so much stuff in there.

"It is another form of vandalism. It is just not necessary when you have got an area that a lot of people appreciate.

"A lot of people wanted to be involved and it looks a lot more natural now."

Tiffany Smith, 16, from Cherry Close in Greater Leys, was one of around half a dozen neighbours who volunteered to help out.

She said: "It is better now. It needed to be tidied. People are using it as a dumping ground, they just throw their stuff in and it is not very nice. They should respect it more because it is a nature reserve."

The clean up also revealed about eight goldfish, eight to 10 tench and a couple of unidentified larger fish were alive in the pond.