MORE than 1,000 volunteers have braved the damp and cold to help clean up the streets of Oxford this weekend.

Organisers have already hailed the 14th annual OxClean event as the ‘biggest and best’ yet with up to seven tonnes of trash cleared from hundreds of neighbourhoods across the city.

Starting on Friday and continuing today, 100 groups and about 1,000 volunteers have been dispatched all over Oxford to collect rubbish, tidy the streets and spruce up the environment.

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With help and equipment from city council contractors Oxford Direct Services, the groups gave up their own time to clean up city parks and streets.

Organiser Natasha Robinson said that, before it had even finished, this year’s clean-up had been the biggest yet.

She said: “It has been our busiest year for recruitment, we have deployed 100 groups and last year we had 94.

“We are really pleased about that this year.

“It is quite a fun thing for groups to do together, it’s quite sociable and kids really enjoy it.

“We had a [volunteer] called Riley who goes out with his mum and he enjoys the feeling of helping the wildlife in the area.

“The kids enjoy going out with their family as well.”

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She estimated the groups will have collected up to seven tonnes of rubbish across the city.

Speaking of litter hotspot around Oxford she said that the retail park area off Botley Road had been a focus this year.

She added that the organisation was always seeking more volunteers to lend a hand.

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She said: “We are always keen to recruit people who want to give up their time and get involved.

“We will support them and give them equipment and anybody interested can get in touch via our website.”

The annual event is organised by Oxford Civic Society and has taken place every year since its launch, with plans already laid out for the OxClean 2021.

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Last year's volunteers cleared more than six tonnes of rubbish from Oxford’s streets.

OxClean aims to keep Oxford clean and tidy all year round, to ensure that the city is a ‘welcoming and pleasant place’ for people to live in, work in and visit.

Visit oxclean.org.uk/spring-clean for more information and on how to get involved.