THIRSTY residents can now fill up their water bottles at nearly 150 businesses across Oxford, thanks to the success of a new scheme.

Refill Oxford will be officially launched this afternoon with the unveiling of a tap sculpture in Bonn Square.

For nearly a year, volunteers have signed up cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs, clubs, hospital outlets, universities, the bus station and even a hairdressers to offer free tap water in an attempt to cut back on the number of plastic bottles wasted in the city.

Participating businesses are displaying a round, blue-branded refill sticker in their window and are featured on a map and app.

Businesses in the Westgate Centre are also signed up to a similar green initiative called ‘Refill Me’.

Most of the businesses signed up to the scheme are independents like the Turl Steet Kitchen, Yellow Submarine, Lush and Common Ground but there are also a large number of chains, including Costa Coffee, Fuller's pubs, Greggs, JD Wetherspoon pubs & hotels, John Lewis, Neal's Yard and Starbucks.

Georgina Matthews, volunteer project manager for Refill Oxford said: “We have built a network of nearly 150 Refill stations in Oxford with a group of fantastic volunteers and forward-looking businesses but now the challenge is to get people to use the scheme."