Flyposting in Oxford's Cowley Road is getting out of hand, claim residents and traders.

They say layers of posters up to an inch thick cover unused shop windows advertising club nights, gigs and concerts across the city.

Tom Corcoran, of ice cream parlour G & Ds, is due to open a branch in Cowley Road in the next few weeks. He said: "Even though our shop is obviously being worked on, people still put flyposters on our window and even our front door.

"We were just walking by and someone was attempting to put a poster on our front door. It's getting over the top."

Alan Sheppard, who lives in Princes Street, brought up the issue at a meeting of Oxford City Council's east area committee. He said: "There is a law that says flyposters can be fined and I think they ought to do it because it's getting out of hand.

"They've got to go round and photograph the posters, then they have the venues and the dates. They can then go to court because they've got the evidence.

"Once they start taking action, it won't put an end to it, but it will certainly reduce it."

He said it had been a problem for some time - but claimed it had increased after the former Zodiac reopened as the Carling Academy in September. He said: "To my mind flyposting is no different to flytipping and in several cases recently the council has fined people for flytipping - with this they don't even have to sort through rubbish bags to find the contact numbers, it's all there."

Erica Steinhauer, who runs Bead Games, had put up a large number of posters about plans for a community space in Dawson Street before they were removed following requests by the council.

She criticised the city council's enforcement officers for targeting the "weakest link in the chain". She said: "Not only is it offensive to me because there is a clause for non-commercial notices but it's actually up to an inch thick in some places. It's that thick you need an archaeologist to go through the flyposting on the former futon shop."

Richard Maides, operations manager for the Academy Music Group which runs the Carling Academy, said they did not endorse illegal advertising.

He said: "On all our venue websites we clearly state that we do not authorise illegal flyposting. We ask our customers to call or email us if they see any posters unlawfully displaying events at the venue and request they join our email mailing list as a fast and environmentally way to find out about gigs and club nights."

Elise Benjamin, a member of the east area committee, said the situation was "an absolute disgrace" and chairman Nuala Young said the committee would investigate setting up more community noticeboards.